I had a short conversation with a conservative who thinks the constitution allows the federal government to regulate immigration. Of course, the constitution has nothing to do with how the government actually operates, but conservatives are supposed to care, right? In reality, they don’t care about the constitution anymore than liberals.

Here’s the conversation, which was later deleted by the “conservative”.

He blew a lot of steam, but never provided any documentation. I was about to provide documentation when he deleted the post, so here is what I found.

This is all the constitution says about federal power on this topic, found in section 8:

4: To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;

There is nothing else about immigration or border control anywhere in it. This jives with what we saw in American history, with no government limits on immigration until the 1920s.

But what is the definition of naturalization? Of course, the right to murder babies and for two dudes to get married has been “found” in the constitution, but that isn’t the type of law that conservatives are interested in practicing, right?

Here’s the legal definition of naturalization:

The act of adopting an alien into a nation, and clothing him with all the rights possessed by a natural- born citizen. Boyd v. Nebraska, 143 U. S. 135, 12 Sup. Ct. 375, 36 L. Ed. 103.

The constitution gives the federal government the right to control who becomes a citizen and how. That is fine with me. I don’t think that everyone who comes here to work for a few years or the rest of their lives has to become a citizen.