Nearly 20 states are suing to block President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants, but some, including Hans von Spakovsky of the Heritage Foundation, Legal experts say the executive order is and should be perfectly legal under the 14th Amendment. It will be upheld by the court.
“I strongly believe that Donald Trump is right. We need to enforce the 14th Amendment as originally intended,” Spakovsky told Fox News Digital. “There will definitely be a lawsuit against this, and it will go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. If the court follows the actual legislative intent and history, it will uphold what Donald Trump has done.”
As President Trump moves quickly to crack down on illegal immigration, his most controversial move to date was to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.
The order, entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Values of American Citizenship,” states that if a person's parents are in the United States illegally or if the parents were born in the United States, “the privileges of American citizenship… It does not automatically apply to people born in the United States.” 'Existence is legal but temporary.
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Immigrants in Brooklyn. president trump (Getty Images)
Twenty-two Democratic-led states and the ACLU are suing to block the order, saying it violates the 14th Amendment. The article states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are citizens of the United States.'' United States and the state in which they reside. ”
“The President does not have the power to amend the Constitution or rewrite or nullify any duly enacted statute, nor does the President have the power to limit who may acquire U.S. citizenship at birth through other sources of law,” the complaint says. “has not been given,” he claims.
However, Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an authority on civil rights and immigration, told Fox News Digital that the 14th Amendment was intended to include the children of individuals who are in the country illegally or temporarily. He said it was not a single thing, but rather a wide range of things. That interpretation has led to widespread “birth tourism” and abuse.
He said a keyword that is often overlooked today is “subject to its jurisdiction,” and that immigrants' loyalty must lie with the United States rather than some foreign power.
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A man plays with a child while waiting with other migrants from Venezuela near a bus stop after being released from U.S. Border Patrol custody on September 13, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. (Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez)
“The Fourteenth Amendment contains two important provisions: One, you must be born in the United States, but you must also be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Birthright. “All the civil rights advocates are just pointing out that first phrase, 'ignore the second,'” he said. “I've done a lot of research on this. I looked at the original text of the 14th Amendment and what that phrase means under the jurisdiction of the United States. The original text of the 14th Amendment in Congress. According to the proponent, you are pledging political allegiance to the United States, not to a foreign government.
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“So children born to foreigners in this country, whether they came legally as diplomats or here illegally, if their parents were foreigners at the time of their birth, they They are not citizens of the United States because they owe political allegiance to and are subject to the jurisdiction of that land, not the United States.''
According to Spakovsky, the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to former slaves and their descendants, was ratified after the Civil War, but it took 100 years after its adoption by Congress to grant birthright citizenship to illegal aliens. It was not used until after this period.
President Trump's birth citizenship executive order faces legal challenge from 22 states
President Donald Trump participates in a ceremony marking the completion of 200 miles of border wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in San Luis, Arizona, June 23, 2020. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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As Democrats and left-wing groups prepare to launch a legal battle against the Trump administration over the order, Spakovsky said he is confident the Supreme Court will rule in Trump's favor.
“The problem with birthright citizenship is that it confers the rights to be a citizen of the United States to individuals who have no loyalty or ties to the United States government, our culture, or our society,” he said. . “The Supreme Court should uphold the Fourteenth Amendment, because its original meaning is clearly not to recognize birthright citizenship.”
