Former President Donald Trump has made a grand promise that “experts” say it would be impossible for him to fulfill and leftists say it would be “un-American” for him to fulfill.
In a video posted to Truth Social on Tuesday, he announced that he immediately intends to nullify part of the 14th Amendment if elected back into office.
“Joe Biden has launched an illegal foreign invasion of our country by allowing a record number of illegal aliens to storm across our borders. All of their future children will become automatic U.S. citizens. Can you imagine? They’ll be eligible for welfare, taxpayer-funded healthcare, the right to vote, chain migration, and countless other government benefits,” he said.
“As part of my plan to secure the border on day one – my new term in office – I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship. It’s things like this that bring millions of people to our country,” he added.
Listen:
The 14th Amendment guarantees that “all persons born” in the United States “are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
The problem is that to undo birthday citizenship, the president would have to either repeal the 14th Amendment outright or rewrite it through a constitutional convention.
“Most experts agree that a president does not have authority to end birthright citizenship through an executive order, primarily because the practice is enshrined in the Constitution,” according to The Hill.
Left-wing critics for their part say that to mess with the Constitution would be “un-American,” period:
Trump has pledged to eliminate birth right citizenship “on day one” if re-elected. (Very unconstitutional). His rabid MAGAs have jumped in to support this racist & un-American proposal. Birth right citizenship is just the latest constitutional right Republicans want to take away.
— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) May 30, 2023
ending birthright citizenship is un-American at its very core. I could not support any candidate pushing that nonsense
its not the way to deal with immigration
— Curtis Woodard (@curtinsea) May 30, 2023
Left-wing critics also say that Republicans rewriting the 14th Amendment would be hypocritical given their opposition to the Second Amendment being rewritten:
BREAKING: Trump apparently wants to abridge the 14th Amendment to the Constitution on his first day in office if he’s re-elected.
I expect, all of the staunch 2nd Amendment supporters will completely unload on Trump for this, right? (sarcasm)
The 14th Amendment grants… pic.twitter.com/8A3v0Pyuy0
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 30, 2023
However, conservatives argue that the 14th Amendment is different from the 2nd Amendment for a couple of key reasons, one being their purpose.
“The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including formerly enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens ‘equal protection of the laws,'” according to the History Channel.
“One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and establish civil and legal rights for black Americans, it became the basis for many landmark Supreme Court decisions over the years,” the channel notes.
And so, the 14th Amendment was primarily designed to grant black people citizenship rights. The problem is these days it’s been exploited by illegal aliens to “earn” citizenship for their anchor babies.
I see the empty headed trolls on full parade, no surprise.
The 14th amendment was to give freed slaves citizenship, not illegals, who Invade our country. A blatant misinterpretation has been used to justify birthright citizenship, and it has become a tourist industry to bypass…
— ObscureAndOutspoken (@ObscrAndOutspkn) May 31, 2023
That being said, this isn’t the first time that Trump has promised to nix this part of the 14th Amendment. Indeed, he previously floated the idea as president in 2019.
“The day after his administration unveiled a regulation that would allow it to indefinitely detain migrant families with children, President Trump also revived talk of a much more radical step: abolishing automatic American citizenship for anyone born in the United States,” The New York Times reported at the time.
“Mr. Trump said on Wednesday that the rule, enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years and rooted in common law before that, was ‘frankly ridiculous,’ and said the White House was ‘looking very, very seriously’ at ending a policy that in the past he has called ‘a magnet for illegal immigration.'”
The Times also reported that it was impossible for him to actually do this: “The president cannot amend the Constitution, and an executive order trying to end or restrict the right to citizenship of persons born in the United States would almost certainly be challenged in court as a violation of the 14th Amendment.”
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