Trump Says He Plans To End Birthright Citizenship With Executive Order

Trump Says He Plans To End Birthright Citizenship With Executive Order

"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," President Donald Trump told "Axios on HBO" in an interview Monday.




Author: William Cummings, USA TODAY, Janson Silvers

Published: 7:19 AM EDT October 30, 2018

Updated: 6:23 PM EDT October 30, 2018






President Donald Trump said in an interview that he plans to sign an executive order ending "birthright citizenship" for the children of non-American citizens who are born on U.S. soil, a move that would likely be challenged immediately in the courts over its constitutionality.


"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump told "Axios on HBO" in an interview Monday. "You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order."


"We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States, with all of those benefits," he continued.
Locally, folks were just as divided.


"This does sort of go back to our history. The history of this country, so it is a bit concerning that it might revoke some of that past," said Sofia Mosquera, an advocacy director at Faith Action International House.


Every day she works with immigrants, and was surprised to hear the President's announcement, because she knows it will affect millions of people.


William Gheen who works with Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee says this is long overdue.


Gheen believes the parts of the 14th amendment are up for interpretation, and if we don't do something soon, he fears our country will be lost.


"Those people are in danger of becoming a huge political force who could run this country more than American Citizens through the process of invasion," said William Gheen.


Gheen also said he would feel more comfortable if Congress changed the Amendment, not a presidential executive order.


The president said, "It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end." He said the move was "in the process" and that it "will happen, with an executive order."


Such an executive order would likely face legal challenges immediately. Per the Fourteenth Amendment, "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 Jon Feere, a legal policy analyst for the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies, says some argue that the wording "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" has "no plain meaning" and the "current, broad application of the Citizenship Clause may not be warranted."

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