TRUMP PLANS TO STOP BIRTH CITIZENSHIP RIGHT
Trump dismisses a century of constitutional scholarship in bid to end birthright citizenship
Donald Trump, 14th Amendment (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Andrew Harnik/AP, NARA)
President
Trump on Wednesday again sought to turn the nation’s attention to his
hard-line stance on immigration ahead of next week’s midterm elections,
claiming that birthright citizenship is not covered by the U.S.
Constitution and vowing the issue will ultimately be settled by the
Supreme Court.
“So-called
Birthright Citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and
is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other,” Trump tweeted.
The
concept of birthright citizenship, which grants citizenship to everyone
born in the United States, is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the
Constitution. It reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the
United States.”
In
an excerpt of an interview with “Axios on HBO” released Tuesday, Trump
said he believes he can end birthright citizenship with an executive
order. Legal scholars overwhelmingly scoffed at the idea.
On Wednesday, Trump took issue with the amendment’s wording.
“It
is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words ‘subject to
the jurisdiction thereof,’” the president said, adding that “many legal
scholars agree” with him. Most legal experts disagree, interpreting the
clause narrowly, to exclude, for example, the families of foreign
diplomats residing in the United States.
“The
conventional understanding is absolutely clear that children born in
the United States are citizens of the United States, with the
insignificant exception of the children of diplomats,” Peter J. Spiro, a
law professor at Temple University, told the New York Times.
“The
14th Amendment settled the question of birthright citizenship,” John
Yoo, a Berkeley law professor who served in the George W. Bush
administration, wrote in a recent essay.
“According to the best reading of its text, structure and history,
anyone born on American territory, no matter their national origin,
ethnicity or station in life, is an American citizen.”
In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Washington Post,
George Conway, a prominent lawyer and husband of Trump counselor
Kellyanne Conway, argued that Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship
would be unconstitutional.“Sometimes
the Constitution’s text is plain as day and bars what politicians seek
to do,” Conway wrote. “That’s the case with President Trump’s proposal.
“The
drafters were motivated by their utter revulsion toward slavery and a
system that relegated people to subordinate political status because of
their birth,” Conway continued. “They weren’t thinking of, or concerned
with, any exceptions to birthright citizenship other than the absolutely
essential. And what they wrote was simple and clear. Both proponents
and opponents of the language at the time knew exactly what it meant:
Virtually anyone born in the United States is a citizen.”
In 1898, Conway noted, the Supreme Court held that the 14th Amendment
“affirms the ancient and fundamental rule of citizenship by birth
within the territory … including all children here born of resident
aliens.”
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board said
Trump’s “birth citizenship gambit” puts him “on the wrong side of
immigration law and politics,” and that the meaning of the amendment is
clear.
“Opponents
of birth citizenship try to obscure this plain meaning by interpreting
‘subject to the jurisdiction’ as applying only to those who owe
allegiance to America,” the Journal said. “The very purpose of the
Fourteenth Amendment was to prevent politicians from denying citizenship
to those they thought weren’t American enough.”
The
case against birthright citizenship is one that’s long been promoted by
anti-immigrant groups who, since the election of Trump, have seen views
that were previously considered fringe and extreme embraced by the
White House and congressional Republicans.
Trump
and other conservatives pointed to a 1993 speech by former Sen. Harry
Reid, D-Nev., who argued “no sane country” would grant citizenship to
children of illegal immigrants.
“If
you break our laws by entering this country without permission and give
birth to a child, we reward that child with citizenship and guarantee a
full access to all public and social services this country provides,”
Reid lamented. “That’s a lot of services.”
“Harry
Reid was right in 1993, before he and the Democrats went insane and
started with the Open Borders (which brings massive Crime) ‘stuff,’” the president tweeted Wednesday.
“Don’t forget the nasty term Anchor Babies. I will keep our Country
safe. This case will be settled by the United States Supreme Court!”
Trump added: “The World is using our laws to our detriment. They laugh at the Stupidity they see!”
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