Backtracking on birthright?
President returns to issue to stoke his GOP base
President Donald Trump says he plans an executive order ending “birthright citizenship” for children of non-American citizens born in the U.S.
Such an order to negate a constitutional amendment would be challenged. Yale professor Peter Schuck says Trump “clearly cannot” end birthright citizenship by executive order.
The 14th 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.”
WASHINGTON – For Donald Trump, it’s back to the future.
As a tumultuous midterm election heads into its final week, President Trump said he plans to sign an executive order banning birthright citizenship for the babies of non-citizens, a controversial act that many legal experts say would violate the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.
The executive order would guarantee a court fight over the long term but simply floating the idea instantly sparked a political firestorm as Republican and Democratic campaigns are laboring to get voters to the polls for the midterms. The proposal to ban birthright citizenship with the stroke of his pen, on the heels of his decision to dispatch thousands of troops to the southern border, is likely to gin up turnout among both base supporters who applaud him and
core opponents who find his hardline stance outrageous and unwise.
Trump is not on the ballot Nov. 6, but the election that will determine control of the House and Senate increasingly stands as a referendum on his presidency in general and his signature immigration views in particular.
The headlines could boost Republican candidates in key Senate races, including efforts to oust Democratic incumbents in such red states as Missouri, Indiana and Montana. But it is more likely to rebound against GOP contenders in competitive House races, many of them in suburban areas where views about immigration are more tempered.
The president’s decision to double down on immigration as Election Day approaches shouldn’t be a surprise. From the start, when he announced his long-shot presidential bid in June 2015, he was issuing a dire warning about immigration. “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” he said then. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
In recent days, he has struck a similar theme in talking about a caravan of migrants from Central America now making its way across Mexico. “There are a lot of bad people in that group,” he said to USA TODAY last week, adding, “I’ve been told there are Middle Eastern people within the caravan.” He declined at the time to explain what evidence he had to make that assertion, and later told reporters he had no proof.
He also said the caravan could provide a political boost for Republicans in the midterms. “I think this could be a blessing in disguise, because it’s showing how bad our laws are,” he told USA TODAY. “And the Democrats are totally responsible for that because they don’t give us the votes to pass strong, or at least fair” immigration laws.
On Monday, the White House said the president was sending 5,200 troops to the southern border though the caravan is still weeks from the U.S. border.
Trump has repeatedly depicted immigrants, especially those who enter the country illegally, as a threat to the fabric of the nation.
“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,” Trump told Axios. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
In fact, dozens of countries grant automatic citizenship to children born within their borders. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution 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 Sate wherein they reside.”
Immigration is an issue that defines and divides the political parties. In a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, Republicans ranked immigration and border security as the top issue affecting their vote, cited by 18 percent of those surveyed. Among Democrats, just 7 percent named immigration.
The president’s comments to Axios were published on the day he was flying to Pittsburgh to express his support for a wounded community. On Saturday, an anti-Semitic gunman massacred 11 worshipers in a synagogue; that was just days after a Trump supporter was arrested for sending suspicious packages to a dozen Democrats.
All that prompted Trump critics to argue that his rhetoric against immigrants, the media, his critics and others was emboldening people who were mentally ill to take violent actions.
And perhaps prompt others to vote.