Senate hopefuls denounce Trump’s proposal
FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Republican Marsha Blackburn and Democrat Phil Bredesen finally agree on one thing in their fractious contest to become Tennessee’s next U.S. senator on Nov. 6.
Both candidates say they don’t think President Donald Trump’s plan to use an executive order to ban birthright citizenship is constitutional.
“I don’t think so,” U.S. Rep. Blackburn told reporters Wednesday after she cast her early vote in Franklin in Tuesday’s election. “I think the 14th Amendment is where it stands.”
“But,” Blackburn quickly added, “the issue of birthright tourism is something that indeed Congress has talked about looking at for a while.”
That’s a reference to a practice involving travel to another country for the specific purpose of giving birth in that country and achieving citizenship.
Bredesen, a former governor and Nashville mayor, told reporters Tuesday at a Nashville get-out-the-vote rally that “I’ve always been kind of a constitutionalist, and it’s awfully hard to read the Constitution and conclude that’s something he can do.
“So no, I just think what he’s proposing is clearly contrary to the Constitution. I think they’d have to really reach to try to find some argument around it. But I really think that in that case it’s really more sort of midterm politics going on there.”
“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! ... ”
– PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP VIA TWITTER
In recent days, as Trump campaigns to keep the Senate in Republican hands, the president has hit the issue of illegal immigration hard, as he successfully did in his own 2016 race.
He has denounced a caravan of Central American migrants making their way through Mexico, and directed more than 5,000 U.S. troops to the border.
And Tuesday the president said he plans to end “birthright citizenship” through an executive order, noting he has spoken to attorneys who tell him he can.
Many legal experts say the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution won’t allow that and would have to be amended, a lengthy and risky process.
The amendment 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.”
But some argue the meaning of the language has never been tested before the Supreme Court.
Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has publicly stated Trump can’t override the Constitution on his own. The president blasted him on Wednesday.
“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!” Trump tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
The president, meanwhile, will be coming back to Tennessee for his third visit on Sunday to boost Blackburn in what has been a close contest. That visit is to Chattanooga, home of sitting Republican Sen. Bob Corker.
Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, is not seeking re-election. He and Trump have famously feuded publicly on a number of issues.