Birthright citizenship is relatively uncommon. There are 195 countries in the world, and only 30 of them have it — that’s just 15 percent

After SCOTUS opened the door to President Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship, the anniversary of the 14th Amendment takes on an added significance.

Unrestricted birthright citizenship — the characteristically New World notion that being born on a country’s soil is enough to make a person its inheritor and steward — represents American identity at its fullest and most audacious. It reflects a belief that the nation can enfranchise and enlist anyone in our grand experiment of self-governance.

If U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans is no longer secure, then neither is the colonial arrangement that produced it.