As the nation's highest court weighs a landmark birthright citizenship case, Virginia's Attorney General is pushing back on questions about his mother's citizenship status.
When asked if Attorney General Jason Miyares qualified as a birthright citizen, Miyares said he’s tired of people questioning his citizenship and the legal status of his mother.
“There’s been a lot of speculation in the media, I think erroneously, I think irresponsibly, that somehow indicated my mother was not legally allowed to be in this country," he told Radio IQ at an event earlier this month. "She was absolutely legally allowed. She fled Cuba, she went to Spain and got her legal green card”
Miyares gave that answer at an event in Hanover earlier this month. He said his mother, armed with that green card, eventually married and had him with his American father. Miyares was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.
His comments come as the U.S. Supreme Court punted on further defining birthright citizenship and instead made a procedural ruling limiting court action.
More than a dozen Republican state AGs filed a brief supporting President Donald Trump’s effort to roll back the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. They said the right incentivizes those without legal status to give birth in the U.S. and changing it would reduce costs on states.
Miyares said he did not sign on to the brief because he was “waiting for clarity” from the high court.
Ama Frimpong is the legal director at Casa, one of the groups that challenged Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship. She noted pretty much everyone in the United States, likely including Miyares, is a birthright citizen because it's one of the few ways to get that status.
“You would have to become naturalized or perhaps derive citizenship from your parents," she told Radio IQ. "But every single person who was born here on U.S. soil is a citizen by virtue of their birth.”
Virginia's current Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears was naturalized after coming to the U.S. with her Jamaican father.
Both Miyares and Earle-Sears described their parents' immigration process as coming to the U.S. the "right way."
"She went through a lot of steps to get here," the Attorney General said. "Nobody likes it when somebody cuts in line, so you've seen such a profound shift for those who have done it the right way."
Frimpong thinks birthright citizenship won't get overturned, and Casa has already amended their lawsuit in line with Friday’s ruling to give the high court the chance to agree.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
