- Trump wants to end birthright rights to address the migrant crisis
Donald Trump wants to eliminate 14th Amendment birthright protections as a way to tackle the migrant crisis in the US
The president-elect said it might take a constitutional shake-up to “change it” and eliminate the amendment that says those born in the United States are American citizens.
“Can you bypass the 14th Amendment with executive action?” NBC host Kristen Welker asked Trump in an interview that aired Sunday.
“Well, we’ll have to change it,” he said. ‘Maybe we should go back to the people. But we have to put an end to it.”
“We’re the only country that has it, you know,” Trump added.
In his first interview since his re-election, Trump said he wanted to end birthright rights during his first term, but was waylaid when the coronavirus pandemic hit in March 2020, essentially halting any action in his final year in office were interrupted.
Trump wants to remove this provision in the Constitution to specifically target illegal immigrants who have children while released into the US without documentation or citizenship.
The way this could happen is for Trump to announce the new policy and then order agencies to stop issuing citizenship confirmation documents – such as Social Security cards and passports – to children born in the US to parents without paper.
Donald Trump reiterated that he wants to eliminate the 14 Amendment’s birthright protections as a way to crack down on illegal immigration and prevent noncitizens from having children with de facto U.S. citizenship.
The legal legitimacy of Trump’s proposal will likely end up before the Supreme Court, which has a nine-to-three conservative majority and as many as three justices nominated by the previous and future president.
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside,” the 14th Amendment states.
Welker, in reciting the Constitutional amendment in her interview with Trump, left out a key part of the provision, saying, “However, the 14th Amendment says that, quote, ‘All persons born in the United States are citizens.’
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah noted the omission.
“Those words are important,” he said of the omitted “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” portion of the text of the 14th Amendment.
This phrase from the Constitution means that anyone born in the US is considered citizens of the country, but excludes those who are not under the legal authority of the nation at the time of birth.
Specifically, this is interpreted to include children of foreign diplomats who are stationed in the US at the time their children are born, and children whose parents owe allegiance to another country when they are born.
Trump and immigration hawks say this includes those born to illegal immigrants who were living in the country undocumented at the time of birth.
The idea is to crack down on the migrant crisis and reduce the number of people coming to the US in an effort to give their children birthright rights.
Trump spoke to NBC News host Kristen Welker in an interview that aired Sunday, in which she questioned whether Trump thinks he can take executive action to circumvent the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“You know we’re the only country that has this,” Trump told Welker in the interview that aired Sunday on Meet the Press. “You know when someone puts a foot, just one foot, one foot, you don’t need two on our land, ‘Congratulations, you are now a citizen of the United States of America.’
“Yes, we’re going to end it because it’s ridiculous,” he insisted.
Trump vowed to tackle the migrant crisis immediately after taking office, and says he will carry out the largest deportation effort in U.S. history.
The president-elect’s transition team is already in talks with third countries to reach an agreement on accepting deported immigrants whose home countries will not accept them back after they leave and enter the US illegally.