Machiavellian said:
When you find that document please post it. I know I have looked on plenty of conservative sites and even they do not have any such statement. |
Your assessment is correct. Something we need to be aware of is that immigration policy at the time of the drafting of the 14th Amendment was extraordinarily different than current policy. For the most part, America operated with a policy of open borders until the early 20th century. And the system of visas didn't come around til the 1920s I believe. The formal laws that exist today wasn't drafted until 1952 in the INA.
So when I hear people talk about what the drafters of the 14th amendment thought in relation to illegal immigration, that is frankly asking the wrong type of question. The Chinese Exclusion acts were passed after the 14th Amendment which is the first major regulation of immigration in the US. It doesn't mean that there wasn't people that the US wanted to exclude before the Chinese Exclusion act, but there wasn't an extensive legal system in place to do it.
