Trump says he will order limits to #BirthrightCitizenship despite #14thAmendment
President Donald Trump is planning to attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order, Trump told news outlet Axios, which reported the move would apply to children of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born in the United States.
It's his latest appeal to anti-immigration supporters in the country and comes on the eve of the midterm elections. But such an order may violate the Constitution. The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," as well as to the children of citizens.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1898 in the case of a child born to Chinese parents in the U.S. that the amendment "includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States.
" But Trump insisted to Axios, in an interview clip released Tuesday morning, that both he and Congress have the power to revoke that right when a reporter mentioned some legal scholars who believe that birthright citizenship is not enshrined in the Constitution.
An executive order ending birthright citizenship would almost certainly face a lawsuit and could affect a large number of people living in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of people were born to undocumented immigrants each year for decades, according to a 2014 Pew study.
In the interview, Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is the only country to grant citizenship to anyone born there, a right he called "ridiculous."
According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. is one of more than 30 countries that offer citizenship by birth, many of them in the Western Hemisphere, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Ending citizenship by birth for some people would be the Trump administration's most dramatic attempt to limit immigration so far.
"I want to help people around the world, but we have to take care of our country, or we won't have a country, including — we have to take care of our country at the border," he said.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1898 in the case of a child born to Chinese parents in the U.S. that the amendment "includes the children born, within the territory of the United States, of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States.
" But Trump insisted to Axios, in an interview clip released Tuesday morning, that both he and Congress have the power to revoke that right when a reporter mentioned some legal scholars who believe that birthright citizenship is not enshrined in the Constitution.
An executive order ending birthright citizenship would almost certainly face a lawsuit and could affect a large number of people living in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of people were born to undocumented immigrants each year for decades, according to a 2014 Pew study.
In the interview, Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is the only country to grant citizenship to anyone born there, a right he called "ridiculous."
According to the CIA World Factbook, the U.S. is one of more than 30 countries that offer citizenship by birth, many of them in the Western Hemisphere, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Ending citizenship by birth for some people would be the Trump administration's most dramatic attempt to limit immigration so far.
"I want to help people around the world, but we have to take care of our country, or we won't have a country, including — we have to take care of our country at the border," he said.
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