The sad inevitability of Justice Alito's birthright citizenship dissent

In 1913, Antonino Alati left southern Italy to find a better life in a land where many people regarded him as little better than scum.

He joined millions of his fellow countrymen in the United States, where the press vilified Italians as poor, swarthy, violent Catholics who had too many babies, refused to assimilate and could never possibly be considered "white."

Politicians were already working to shut the door on them. A congressional report released two years before Alati's arrival cited southern Italians as evidence that "the new immigration as a class is far less intelligent than the old." They came to the U.S., the report asserted, "with the intention of profiting, in a pecuniary way, by the superior advantages of the new world and then returning to the old country."

Olga Urbina and her 9 months son Ares Webster participate in a protest outside the US Supreme Court over President Donald Trump's move to end birthright citizenship as the court hears arguments over the order in Washington, DC, on May 15, 2025. Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office seeking to limit birthright citizenship for children whose parents are in the United States illegally or on temporary visas, but it has been blocked in multiple appellate courts. He appealed the case to the Supreme Court on March 13.