Is the 14th amendment in reference to slavery or immigrants?

The answer is yes, it does. Let's go into the background a little bit, and talk mostly about Section 1, the part that drives more court cases than the other three sections combined. read more

So the 14th Amendment was written to grant citizenship to former slaves, but understood to grant citizenship to the children of non-citizen immigrants as well. This understanding was amplified and expanded in two subsequent Supreme Court decisions: Elk v. read more

But in 1868, the United States had no formal immigration policy, and the authors therefore saw no need to address immigration explicitly in the amendment. Senator Jacob Howard worked closely with Abraham Lincoln in drafting and passing the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery. read more

The answers came about only through a revolution. Four years of civil war and the near dissolution of the nation brought an end to slavery and the enactment of a new constitutional regime. The adoption of the 14th Amendment in 1868 guaranteed citizenship to those born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves. read more

Not until the 13th Amendment was slavery mentioned specifically in the Constitution. There the term was used to ensure that there was to be no ambiguity as what exactly the words were eliminating. In the 14th Amendment, the euphemism "other persons" (and the three-fifths value given a slave) was eliminated. read more