US President-elect Donald Trump is going to end birthright citizenship in the United States when he assumes office. The policy gives automatic citizenship to a person born on US soil, whether their parents are tourists or undocumented immigrants, through the 14th Amendment.
In his first Sunday television interview since the election, Trump said he would indeed make good on that pledge. “Yeah, absolutely,” he said when pressed on the plan in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press. He called the current system “ridiculous” and said he would look at a number of ways to change the practice.
In a nod to the advocates for undocumented migrants, who are very important in the US economy, Trump said that he was willing to work with Democrats on issues regarding “dreamers,” immigrants who arrived as children and have since become productive members of society. He emphasized the importance of keeping families together, suggesting that this approach raises concerns about expelling legal US citizens born in the country.
Critics, including several Republicans, contend that birthright citizenship has led to “birth tourism,” where pregnant women enter the US to give birth and thus secure citizenship for their children.
This is because to change the constitutional provision, Trump would require two-thirds of majority votes from the Senate and House of Representatives and a ratification of three-fourths of the state legislatures. In reality, the Republicans currently enjoy only a narrow majority and fall short in terms of achieving such an enormous transformation.
While Trump discussed issuing an executive order to restrict citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, legal experts assert that such actions would likely face litigation, highlighting the challenges of altering established citizenship rights.
