Donald Trump plans to revoke the birthright citizenship
which allows children of non-citizens and illegal immigrants born in the US to
become automatic citizens.
The US President referred to the law as
"ridiculous" during an interview for Axios on HBO and said he wants
to sign an executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Trump has always criticized the so-called "anchor
babies" and now that he is president, he plans to do something about it.
He said:
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. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to
end.
The 14th Amendment of the Constitution, written in 1868,
states:
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.
Trump says he can change the law without amending the
Constitution and can do so with an executive order.
A preview of the documentary, which airs on Sunday, shows
him saying:
It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment.
Guess what? You don't.
You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now
they're saying I can do it just with an executive order.
It's in the process. It'll happen... with an executive
order.
Former US Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel
Lynden Melmed told Axios that very few experts believe the President has the
power to change birthright citizenship.
Trump vows to revoke "ridiculous" birthright
citizenship given to children born in the US
Some scholars have claimed that the 14th Amendment was never
intended to give illegal immigrants' children citizenship and has been
misapplied for decades, Daily Mail reports. Therefore, they say, Trump could
change the application with an executive order to give birthright citizenship
only to children born of legal permanent residents.
Michael Anton, a former national security official for
Trump, wrote in the Washington Post that an executive order could "specify
to federal agencies that the children of non-citizens are not
citizens".
But others, such as Judge James Ho, who was appointed by
Trump to Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, insist that changing how the 14th
Amendment is applied would be "unconstitutional."
