Recently the President of the United States announced that he wants to end Birthright Citizenship. Can he do this?

President Trump is trying to come up with an executive order that would change the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship. So, if someone is the child of two immigrants and they are born on US soil then they get US citizenship right away. This is all written in the 14th amendment.

“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 for 85 years, with all those benefits. It’s ridiculous and it has to end,” said Trump in an interview he had with Axios.

Trump’s statement is actually false information; the US isn’t the only country. In fact, there are about 30 other countries who have birthright citizenship,  including Canada, Mexico, Argentina and many more in the Western Hemisphere.

Even Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin agreed that Trump “obviously” cannot take away Birthright Citizenship by an executive order.

Republicans now compare the Birthright Citizenship idea to Barack Obama’s action in 2012 that was to grant work permits and deportation reprieves to some undocumented brought to the US to live as children, Mr. Trump said that it was an “abuse of presidential power.”

It is unclear on how serious Trump is taking this Birthright Citizenship but in order to make a change, Trump will have to find a way around the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment says, “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.”

Immigration advocates argue that taking away Birthright Citizenship would have the opposite effect to people who have the same belief as Trump. A study was done by the Migration Policy Institute and it was shown that if citizenship was denied to a child because of one unauthorized parent, the unauthorized population in the US would be 24 million by 2050, more than twice amount it is now.

Vice President Pence said in an interview, “I think the president is looking at executive action. We want to look in the broadest way possible at American law that may be used as a magnet to draw people into our country.”  

President Trump believes that he could make an executive order that controls people coming into the US and having their kids just so they could get automatic citizen. Although he wants to Trump cannot sidestep the constitution with an executive action.