Strangers to the Constitution : immigrants, borders, and fundamental law / Gerald L. Neuman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neuman, Gerald L., 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Noncitizens--United States.

Noncitizens.

Emigration and immigration law--United States.

Emigration and immigration law.

Civil rights--United States.

Civil rights.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages)

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1996.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Gerald Neuman discusses in historical and contemporary terms the repeated efforts of U.S. insiders to claim the Constitution as their exclusive property and to deny constitutional rights to aliens and immigrants--and even citizens if they are outside the nation's borders. Tracing such efforts from the debates over the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 to present-day controversies about illegal aliens and their children, the author argues that no human being subject to the governance of the United States should be a "stranger to the Constitution. "Thus, whenever the government asserts its power to impose obligations on individuals, it brings them within the constitutional system and should afford them constitutional rights. In Neuman's view, this mutuality of obligation is the most persuasive approach to extending constitutional rights extraterritorially to all U.S. citizens and to those aliens on whom the United States seeks to impose legal responsibilities. Examining both mutuality and more flexible theories, Neuman defends some constitutional constraints on immigration and deportation policies and argues that the political rights of aliens need not exclude suffrage. Finally, in regard to whether children born in the United States to illegally present alien parents should be U.S. citizens, he concludes that the Constitution's traditional shield against the emergence of a hereditary caste of "illegals" should be vigilantly preserved.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

PREFACE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Chapter One. WHOSE CONSTITUTION?

PART ONE: THE PAST

Chapter Two. THE OPEN BORDERS MYTH AND THE LOST CENTURY OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAW

Chapter Three. CONSTITUTIONAL LIMITS ON IMMIGRATION REGULATION IN THE FIRST CENTURY: FEDERALISM OBJECTIONS

Chapter Four. THE RIGHTS OF ALIEN FRIENDS WITHIN THE UNITED STATES

Chapter Five. THE GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE OF THE CONSTITUTION

PART TWO: THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

Chapter Six. RIGHTS BEYOND OUR BORDERS

Chapter Seven. CROSSING THE BORDER

Chapter Eight. LIMITS OF THE POLITY: POLITICAL RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED STATES

Chapter Nine. LIMITS OF THE NATION: BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP AND UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN

Chapter Ten. CONCLUSION

NOTES

INDEX

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [191]-275) and index.

ISBN:

9786612752391

9781282752399

1282752391

9781400821952

1400821959

9781400812790

1400812798

OCLC:

705527012