TRUMP HITS ALLY OVER CITIZENSHIP CONTROVERSY
Speaker Paul Ryan ‘knows nothing’ about fundamental law, US President says days before crucial elections
WASHINGTON— US President Donald Trump criticized his fellow Republican, House Speaker Paul Ryan, for opposing his position on birthright citizenship.
“Ryan should be focusing on holding the majority rather than giving his opinions on birthright citizenship, something he knows nothing about!” Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Pattern of behavior
Trump, whose own 2016 presidential campaign was buoyed on anti-immigrant positions, ramped up the rhetoric as Republicans campaigned to keep their fragile House majority during the midterm elections on Nov. 6.
The US leader stoked fears of an “invasion” of Central Americans, who are marching through Mexico en route to the US-Mexico border, and said he would send up to 15,000 troops to block the entry of about 4,000 migrants, mostly from Honduras.
A thousand miles away
But the migrant caravan is still in southern Mexico and is not expected to arrive at the border until after the elections.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders admitted in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that there was “more than just one piece of the puzzle” on immigration.
“The president wants to see a total reform take place. We have massive loopholes in our immigration system that we have to close or we’re just going to continue kicking the can down the road,” Sanders added.
Trumphimself had repeatedly said his position on immigration was not new and “has nothing to do with elections,” but his pronouncements had been widening rifts in the Republican Party.
While Trump’s position gained support from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, other party members were critical, including lawyer George Conway III, husband of top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway.
Conway wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post on Wednesday that such a move to end birthright citizenship would be unconstitutional.
Plain as day
“Sometimes, the Constitution’s text is plain as day and bars what politicians seek to do. That’s the case with President Trump’s proposal to end ‘birthright citizenship’ through an executive order,” the attorney wrote.
Ryan, who is retiring from Congress after this term, said on Tuesday that revising birthright citizenship would take a long time and Trump could not do it through executive action.
But Trump insisted that “many legal scholars agree” with his interpretation that birthright citizenship to the children on non-US citizens was “not covered by the 14th Amendment.”
The US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, added after the Civil War, granted citizenship to anyone born on American soil and was intended to give constitutional protections to former slaves.
‘One way or the other’
He maintained that birthright citizenship “will be ended one way or the other,” although he appeared to back off from his earlier announcement that he would do it by executive action.
“Our new Republican majority will work on this, closing the immigration loopholes and securing our border,” he said in his tweet on Wednesday.