President-elect Trump is doubling down on his pledge to abolish birthright citizenship, a mission likely to face legal challenges and skepticism from within his own party.
First, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. As a result, most legal experts believe President Trump will not be able to end the rights by executive order, as he suggested on the campaign trail and in recent interviews. “Let's meet the press.”
Republican lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Vivek Ramaswamy, also support the idea of abolishing birthright citizenship, but it poses legal hurdles for others. That raises questions about whether reversing programs that automatically grant American citizenship will become popular. Anyone born in the United States, regardless of ancestry, is eligible.
President Trump told NBC host Kristen Welker when asked if he believed the 14th Amendment could be circumvented through presidential action. Maybe we have to go back to the people. But it has to end. We're the only country that has that, you know. ”
“If someone steps foot on our land, they don't just need one foot, one foot, two feet, 'Congratulations, you're now a citizen of the United States of America,'” Trump told NBC. I would say,” he said. “Okay, that's ridiculous so I'll stop.”
President Trump has suggested that birthright citizenship is uniquely American, but that is not actually the case. Dozens of other countries have birthright citizenship, including Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Peru, according to . C.I.A..
Some supporters of President Trump's plan argue that the common interpretation of the 14th Amendment is wrong, and that the citizenship clause limits birthright citizenship to children born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” claims to focus on qualifications.
The exception is traditionally interpreted Exclude only children of foreign diplomats, foreign enemies under hostile occupation, or Native American children subject to tribal law. But proponents of the redefinition argue that the exception also excludes children of illegal immigrants.
Legal scholars across the ideological spectrum generally agree that there is clarity in this provision.
Jessica Levinson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University, said, “You cannot ignore the Constitution and issue an 'executive order.'' “If you want to eliminate birthright citizenship, you need to amend the Constitution, not issue an executive order.”
“The 14th Amendment is clear, period and punctuation included,” she added. “If you are born in this country, you are a citizen.”
Ilya Somin, Director of Constitutional Studies at the Libertarian Cato Institute, argued this in a November 25 paper. Just security article Efforts to deny citizenship rights to the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States would be a “clear violation of both the letter and original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment,” he said.
He notes that even Judge James Ho, who President Trump appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and is known for inciting judicial mobs, has denied birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants in 2006 and 2015. He noted that the right was guaranteed by the 14th Circuit Court of Appeals. Fixed.
“That birthright is as protected for the children of illegal aliens as it is for the descendants of the Mayflower passengers,” Ho said. Written in 2015.
The judge later retracted that position. he said in one article Interview with the libertarian magazine Reason magazine. Last month, it declared that birthright citizenship does not apply in cases of war or invasion, and illegal immigrants are considered “invading aliens.”
“To my knowledge, no one has ever claimed that the children of invading aliens have a right to birthright citizenship,” he says.
President Trump has signaled he is open to finding a way for Dreamers — people brought to the United States illegally as children — to remain in the United States.
President Trump: “We've got to do something about the Dreamers, because these are people who were brought here when they were young, and many of them are middle-aged now, and they don't even speak their language.'' he told NBC. “I'm going to work with the Democrats to come up with a plan.”
The question of what to do about birthright citizenship and Dreamers has been debated by Republicans for years. During the Republican presidential primary, Ramaswamy said he would deport undocumented immigrant children with their families, and Trump has indicated he would do the same in his second term.
DeSantis said the rules currently in place in the United States are “inconsistent with the original understanding of the 14th Amendment.” Trump vowed to abolish birthright through executive order in May, when he was running for president with a key policy focus on curbing immigration.
His pledge has been welcomed by Trump supporters, but a former senior Bush administration official warned that some Republicans would object to the idea of making major changes to the law.
“Pursuing birthright citizenship would be very popular among Trump's base. Why is the U.S. one of the few countries with this basic structure? It's a natural question,” the official said. said. “However, there will be both legal backlash and anxiety from the 'melting pot' faction of the Republican Party, which has long championed the idea that anyone can succeed in America.”
Meanwhile, President Trump's staunch ally, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Discussed on social media platform X On Sunday, Congress also has the power to define what it means to be born in the United States and subject to American jurisdiction.
“Although current law does not include such a limitation, Congress may in the future exclude the “born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction'' category from birthright citizenship to undocumented aliens. We could pass a law that defines what that means,” Lee said. Said.
Mike Howell, executive director of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, argued in 2020 that the president could change birthright citizenship through executive order.
“The president doesn't need Congress to end this practice,” he said. I wrote at that time. “He could issue an executive order directing federal agencies to issue passports and other government documents and benefits only to individuals whose status as U.S. citizens meets this requirement.”
But legal experts have warned that any attempt to gut the constitution without completely amending it could face legal challenges.
“If we really want to change this, we need to change the Constitution,” Levinson said.
