Trump May End Birthright Citizenship Before Leaving Office

In its final weeks before leaving office, the Trump administration has reopened internal discussions aimed at taking executive action against birthright citizenship in the United States, The Hill has said.

Birthright citizenship is an entitlement of any child born on US soil, but many Americans opposing the right complain that foreigners come to the US for the purpose of childbirth so their kids can become Americans.

President Trump has always spoken out against the law and has many times vowed to look into it. Citing sources, The Hill reports that drafts of a possible order have been circulating for some time, and that there is now internal discussion about finalizing it before the Biden administration takes over in January.

“You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order,” Trump said in a 2018 Axios interview. “We’re the only country in the world where a person (who is not a citizen) comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States with all of those benefits.”

Last year, he told reporters, “We’re looking at that very seriously,” calling the entitlement “frankly ridiculous.”

White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement that “since taking office, President Trump has never shied away from using his lawful executive authority to advance bold policies and fulfill the promises he made to the American people, but I won’t speculate or comment on potential executive action.”

The Department of Justice has been consulted about a possible birthright citizenship order given it would deal with the legal implications of the new policy.

The administration is aware the order would be promptly challenged in court, but officials would hope to get a ruling on whether birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment, the report further adds.

Ending birthright citizenship is only one of measures being discussed as the administration winds up. Others include additional reforms to the H-1B visa program, regulatory reforms and measures targeting China.

Trump is yet to concede defeat.

Birthright citizenship is protected under the 14th Amendment, which states, in part, that “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.”

Some outside groups and allies of the administration have wondered why Trump has waited until his final weeks in office to act.

“The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment was clearly intended to guarantee that emancipated slaves would properly be recognized as U.S. citizens,” said RJ Hauman, government relations director at the Federation for American Immigration Reform. “It is a fundamental misapplication of this clause that U.S.-born children of illegal aliens are granted automatic citizenship, much less the offspring of people who come here to simply give birth on American soil.”

“If the president finally issues a long-awaited executive order limiting birthright citizenship, it will be up to the Supreme Court to resolve this issue once and for all,” Hauman added.

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