Summary
Ratified in 1868 to secure equal treatment for African Americans after the end of slavery, the Fourteenth Amendment also provided key rights for immigrants and their families such as birthright citizenship, equal protections, and due process. The Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment to extend birthright citizenship to all persons born in the United States and as a protection against discrimination based on categories such as race, class, and gender for legal residents. Starting in the 1890s, however, courts have ruled that the federal government’s “sovereign and plenary power” over immigration can supersede these civil rights protections, such as in cases involving excludable aliens and unauthorized immigrants whose immigration related situations are handled through the immigration bureaucracy and courts.
Source
“No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
