From what I’ve been reading and hearing, it appears as if any Executive Order on the subject will revolve around “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” from the 14th Amendment. Would it be legal? Constitutional? We’ll have to see how it is written, if it is at all. But, hey, what about those poor kids of illegal aliens?
What Trump’s proposed birthright citizenship order could do to the children of immigrants
President Trump wants to stop the U.S. from automatically granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants’ babies born in the U.S., a policy that — if approved — could hinder those children’s future economic success, critics say.
The president wants to sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship, a rule under the 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to children born in the U.S. regardless of their parents’ status, he told Axios. He claimed the U.S. was the only country in the world where immigrants’ babies get all the benefits of citizenship, though that is incorrect — more than 30 countries have birthright citizenship, including Mexico, Canada and Brazil.
Trump said on Twitter TWTR, -1.35%  that birthright citizenship costs the country billions of dollars and is unfair to its residents. Lindsey Graham, a Republican Senator from South Carolina, said birthright citizenship was a “magnet for illegal immigration in modern times.†(snip)
The American Civil Liberties Union has called Trump’s proposal “blatantly unconstitutional.†Executive orders don’t need Congressional approval, but repealing the 14th Amendment would, said Rose Cuison Villazor, director of the Center for Immigration Law, Policy and Justice at Rutgers Law School. There are many unanswered questions about the proposed policy, such as whether it would apply only to children going forward or those who were born to undocumented immigrants in the past, and whether it would apply to children born to one unauthorized immigrant parent or both, she said.
The same people said that Obama’s DACA order was just fine. Regardless, you look at the attempt at misdirection by Marketwatch and writer Allesandra Malito. The picture above is from the article, and shows legal immigrants, most likely during a citizenship ceremony. Trump’s order would not cover them in the least.
If reversing birthright citizenship were to succeed, it would essentially create a second class of Americans — those who were born in the country but do not have the same benefits as citizens, Villazor said. If children were denied citizenship because of both parents’ legal status, there would be another 16 million undocumented people in the U.S. by 2050, according to a 2010 Migration Policy Institute report. If the repealed amendment denied children citizenship because either parent was a noncitizen, however, 24 million people would be unauthorized by 2050 — 2.5 times the amount if birthright citizenship were retained.
If the children were not granted automatic citizenship, then illegal immigration would drop. How much? Good question. The idea is to make it so illegal had less incentive to come illegally.
Interestingly, no one is complaining that there are zero European Union nations that allow birthright citizenship. No complaints about second class citizenship.
The Dominican Republic recently re-interpreted its birthright citizenship policy and retroactively denationalized thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent, thus limiting their right to work, attend school or obtain birth certificates and passports, said Susan Akram, a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. If the U.S. were to follow this path, the results would be similar, she argued.
“It would deprive all children born in the U.S. to immigrants living without authorization to a plethora of basic rights,†she said. For example, children may have trouble finding work when they’re older without access to identification papers, including driver’s licenses and state ID cards, she said. “The U.S. will be creating a population of stateless persons whom it cannot deport anywhere, but who have neither the right to work nor obtain basic benefits for survival,†she said.
No, the illegal alien parents will be creating this. So, they should stay home. Or apply for citizenship like so many other people do.
