Department of Political Science

Since the end of racial prerequisite cases in 1952, anyone born on US soil has been granted birthright citizenship. But, prominent political figures have recently questioned whether children born to undocumented immigrants should automatically receive citizenship. Despite the importance of this issue, there is limited research on public attitudes towards this policy, its determinants, and its consequences. We address these open questions using the 2020 CMPS, and find that while most support birthright citizenship, a significant minority favors its revocation. Support for a ban is higher among Whites than among minorities. Those with closer ties to the immigrant experience, more liberal attitudes, and lower Trump favorability are less likely to support a ban. Negative attitudes towards undocumented immigrants and racial attitudes are also strongly correlated with banning birthright citizenship. Finally, birthright citizenship attitudes are consequential: across each racial group, they were significantly associated with greater Trump support in 2020.

To what extent do legislators respond to the poor? While extensive research demonstrates the poor are largely ignored in legislators’ policy calculations, little research examines the degree to which they discriminate against the poor with respect to providing constituency service. We examine this question using a series of correspondence experiments on both the offices of members of Congress and state legislators on the topic of health care. Consistent with previous studies we find no evidence that members of Congress discriminate by economic class and only mix edevidence that state legislators discriminate along these lines. We also find limited, but potentially important, evidence of partisan bias in service responsiveness for state legislators.