President Donald Trump Say he plans to sign an executive order to end what he called the “ridiculous” practice of extending citizenship to children of unauthorized immigrants born in the US.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment,” to end the practice called “birthright citizenship,” Trump told Axios’s Jonathan Swan. “Guess what? You don’t.”
“You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order,” said Trump.
The 14th amendment to the US constitution, ratified by Congress in 1868 as part of the civil rights amendments after the Civil War, says the following:
“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.”
But Trump’s proposed ban would only apply to unauthorized immigrants in the US. Trump’s lawyers would likely argue that that clause applies only to lawful US residents and not unauthorized immigrants or those on temporary visas.
“How ridiculous, we’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous and it has to end.
“It’s in the process. It will happen with an executive order.”