section_path: History/Supreme Court decisions
section_name: Supreme Court decisions
paragraph_text: Supreme Court decisions
  
  Since the late 19th century, various Supreme Court rulings established the Constitutional rights of illegal immigrants. In Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), the court ruled that under the Fourteenth Amendment, all people, regardless of "race, of color, or of nationality" have the right to due process and equal protection under the law. A similar ruling of Wong Wing v. US (1896) stated that all persons within the territory of the United States are afforded equal protections under the Fifth Amendment and Sixth Amendment.
  
  A 1904 court decision defined any alien as lacking Constitutional rights when not within the United States.