Trump aims to end citizenship by birth

US President Donald Trump plans to push through an executive order to end the right of children born in the US to citizenship when their parents are noncitizens or illegal immigrants, he said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Such a move would prompt a constitutional fight. It was unclear what action his order would pursue, and he gave no other details to the HBO pay cable channel Axios.

Trump ratcheted up his hard-line immigration stance a week before US congressional elections, as the country grapples with race and national identity amid bursts of violence, including bombs sent to top Democrats and other Trump critics and the deadliest attack on a synagogue in US history.

Seeking to end birthright citizenship outlined in the 14th amendment would take direct aim at the constitution and probably prompt immediate legal challenges and potential opposition in Congress. Changing an amendment in the constitution would require the support of two-thirds of the US House of Representatives and the Senate and the backing of three-fourths of US state legislatures at a constitutional convention.

But Trump said he had talked to his legal counsel and was advised he could enact the change on his own, contrary to the view of many experts. Asked about such powers being disputed, Trump said: “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,” he said in the interview, to air in full on Sunday.

Chris Coons, a Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said on Tuesday Trump “was driving a false narrative on immigration” to stoke fear ahead of the November 6 vote. On Monday, his administration moved to send more than 5,200 troops to help secure the border with Mexico as a caravan of Central American migrants makes its way there. The caravan, moving mostly on foot, is not expected to arrive for several weeks.