Wong Kim Ark ♂️

Wong Kim Ark was a Chinese-American citizen who played a significant role in the development of the doctrine of birthright citizenship in the United States. Born in 1873, he was the son of Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco, California. Wong's parents were lawful residents of the United States, and Wong himself was born in San Francisco. Wong Kim Ark became famous for his legal battle to establish his right to American citizenship. In 1898, when he was 25 years old, Wong traveled to China to visit his parents, and upon returning to the United States, he was denied entry by the immigration authorities under the Chinese Exclusion Act. Wong sued the government, arguing that, as a native-born child of Chinese immigrants, he was a U.S. citizen by birthright. The case eventually went to the Supreme Court, and in 1898, the court ruled in Wong's favor, declaring that he was indeed a citizen of the United States based on the principle of birthright citizenship. Wong Kim Ark's landmark Supreme Court case established the principle that anyone born on American soil, regardless of their parents' citizenship, is a U.S. citizen. This decision had a lasting impact on Asian Americans and immigrants in the United States, providing them with legal protections and recognition as citizens. It also set an important precedent for the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause, which has since been applied to various other cases involving birthright citizenship in the country.