President Donald Trump will issue a future executive order to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants and some other non-citizens, he told Axios on HBO in a Monday TV interview.
Exclusive: Trump plans to sign an executive order terminating birthright citizenship, he said yesterday in an exclusive interview for “Axios on HBO.” pic.twitter.com/D2RE4N4OrJ
— Axios (@axios) October 30, 2018
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump said of the impending action, confirming that he had spoken with the White House counsels office about the maneuver.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Trump continued, “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.” The president’s expected executive order is certain to spark a high stakes legal battle, which is likely to make it all the way to the Supreme Court.
Birthright citizenship stems from the 14th Amendment of the Constitution which states that “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.”
Andrew Harnik/Pool via REUTERS
Existing judicial precedent, however, only clarifies that children of lawful permanent residents in the U.S. qualify for citizenship with no ruling on the children of illegal immigrants or temporary residents. Any executive order by Trump would only be able to legally target these immigrant populations.
Trump has spoken on anchor babies before in August 2015 during the 2016 presidential campaign saying, “I don’t think they have American citizenship and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers — and I know some will disagree, but many of them agree with me — and you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship.”