President-elect Donald Trump will have a busy Day One given the many policies he has promised to implement immediately, but there is a possible day-one policy that has gotten more than usual attention. Trump has toyed with the idea of using an executive order to end birthright citizenship.
That’s the policy that grants citizenship to anyone born on American soil, including the children of people here visiting or illegally. Typically, conservatives decry the misuse of executive orders and claim to be devoted adherents to the words of the U.S. Constitution, but apparently their principles are malleable when it comes to immigration.
In an interview with NBC News, Trump said “yeah, absolutely” when asked whether he intends to do this, although he did offer a caveat: “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.” We suspect the incoming Trump administration is considering the order as a means to spark a legal challenge that could ultimately change this policy, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment.
Per the 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.” A few cases over the nation’s history have challenged that precedent. The key one involved a Chinese immigrant born in San Francisco in the late 19th century who was denied re-entry because of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Fortunately, the courts have upheld the Constitution’s clear language. If Republicans want to circulate a constitutional amendment, that’s fine – but we suppose they aren’t eager to wage this battle given the difficulty in passing them. So they are seeking shortcuts.
There are practical reasons for supporting birthright citizenship. “One of our big benefits is that people born here are citizens, are not an illegal underclass,” the Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh told PBS. Trump called the policy “ridiculous” and said we’re the only nation with it. We agree with Nowrasteh, but whatever one’s views the system cannot – and should not – be overturned by fiat.
