US President Donald Trump yesterday said that the US constitution does not guarantee the right to citizenship to everyone born in the country and that he would continue his push to end it.
“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. It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ Many legal scholars agree.....” Trump wrote in a Twitter post.
His post came despite widespread criticism on Tuesday of Trump’s claim that he could end birthright citizenship with an executive order.
His surprise announcement came in an interview with Axios released in part on Tuesday.
Trump told Axios that he now believes a stroke of his pen would be enough.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump said. “Now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”
He railed against the current rule, erroneously declaring that the US is unique in granting citizenship this way.
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby and the person 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,” he said.
However, US House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said in an interview with radio station WVLK that it was not possible to end birthright citizenship with an executive order, the Washington Post reported.
“As a conservative, I’m a believer in following the plain text of the constitution, and I think in this case the 14th amendment is pretty clear, and that would involve a very, very lengthy constitutional process,” Ryan said.
To change the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the US Congress — something almost unthinkable in today’s deeply partisan, near evenly split legislature.
More than two dozen nations around the world do grant citizenship to newborns, including Canada, which like the US, grants citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants.
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