Trump Reconsidering Birthright Citizenship
[guest post by Dana]
While immigration has been a central plank of his presidency, and in light of the 14th Amendment, Trump said today that he is once again considering an end to birthright citizenship:
Donald Trump has said the government is weighing whether to abolish birth right citizenship, calling the constitutional right “ridiculous”.
Currently a child born in the US is entitled to a US passport. The constitution’s 14th amendment, passed after the civil war to ensure that black Americans had full citizenship rights, grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States”.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday, Trump said: “We are looking at birthright citizenship very seriously. It’s frankly ridiculous.”
Trump did not elaborate any further.
The 14th Amendment:
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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Back in October, right before the midterms, Trump said that he would abolish birthright citizenship via executive order:
“You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order,” he said at the time.
The president’s announcement came hours after the White House said it would move to scrap a major court agreement in order to allow for migrant families to be detained longer as their cases are being considered, instead of having to release them after 20 days.
And then there are the legal issue involved:
Legal experts say the ultimate question regarding birthright citizenship is whether the 14th Amendment – which affords citizenship to “[a]ll 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” – encompasses the children of illegal immigrants.
The unresolved legal dispute centers on whether those children are “subject” to the jurisdiction of the United States.
You can read the opinions of legal experts here, here, here and here.
–Dana