When Congress debated the wording of the Fourteenth Amendment, Chinese immigration was not at the forefront of legislators’ minds. They were primarily focused on granting citizenship to newly emancipated Black people while continuing to deny it to Native people living outside of America’s jurisdiction. Their ultimate choice of words reflected these desires. The first sentence of the amendment proclaimed, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

But some legislators did realize that by enshrining birthright citizenship in the U.S. Constitution, they were opening a hitherto closed door. Since 1790, Chinese immigrants had been racially barred from naturalization, but the Fourteenth Amendment would produce a clear legal pathway to citizenship for the next generation. Fearing racial contamination through Chinese migration, a few legislators argued against birthright citizenship. But it was a California senator, John Conness (R-CA), who ultimately put their fears to rest. He told his fellow senators that they should make “no further trouble on account of the Chinese in California.” He recognized that the amendment would produce U.S. citizens of Chinese descent, and “that the children of all parentage whatever, born in California, should be regarded and treated as citizens of the United States.” But he assured the Senate that most Chinese would eventually return to the country of their birth and that California was more than capable of protecting itself.

In the end, Conness found it easier to convince his fellow senators than his fellow Californians. The California legislature refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and the swelling anti-Chinese fervor in the state eventually pushed Conness out of politics. Even without California’s support, the Fourteenth Amendment reached the threshold for ratification in July 1868.