President vows end to birthright citizenship
House speaker says ‘you obviously cannot do that’ with an executive order
WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump is vowing to sign an executive order that would seek to end the right to U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to noncitizens, a move most legal experts say runs afoul of the Constitution and that was dismissed Tuesday by the top House Republican.
The action, which Trump previewed in a television clip broadcast Tuesday, would be the most aggressive by a president elected to office pledging to take a hard line on immigration, an issue he has revived in advance of next week’s midterm elections.
“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 for 85 years with all of those benefits,” Trump said during an interview with Axios scheduled to air as part of a new HBO series starting this weekend. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
In fact, more than 30 countries, including Canada and Mexico, have similar policies.
Leading Democrats and immigrants-rights activists blasted Trump’s promise Tuesday. And House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., also dismissed the idea during a radio interview, saying it is not consistent with the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
“Well, you obviously cannot do that,” Ryan said on WVLK in Kentucky. “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.”
Ryan also said that Republicans did not like it when President Barack Obama changed immigration policy by executive action and that altering the Constitution would be a lengthy process.
Other Republicans, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, Iowa, said that while birthright citizenship for the children of permanent residents is settled law, there is “a debate among legal scholars about whether that right extends to the children of illegal immigrants.”
In recent weeks, Trump also has repeatedly called attention to a migrant caravan making its way toward the U.S.-Mexico border, invoking it as a symbol of what he sees as wrong with the U.S. immigration system and blaming Democrats for a lack of action.
Trump, who has long decried “anchor babies,” has sought occasionally for months to end birthright citizenship, telling advisers that many migrants are only making the dangerous crossing into the United States so their children can become citizens, according to a former White House official who discussed the matter with the president.
The president often orders aides to craft an executive order — even when his authority is legally dubious. Former White House counsel Donald McGahn and former staff secretary Rob Porter often battled with the president over the orders, telling him they would bring lawsuits, White House advisers said.
In the Axios interview, Trump said he has discussed ending birthright citizenship with his legal counsel and believes it can be accomplished with executive action.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump told Axios.
When told that view is disputed, Trump asserted: “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 ... with an executive order,” he said, without offering a time frame.
The president’s lawyers and top advisers have ques- tioned whether such a plan is legal but it has gotten support from Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration adviser.
That said, many White House officials — including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders — were startled when Trump promised such an order in the Axios interview, according to current and former White House officials.
The idea had not been under active consideration in recent days, the officials said.
There were some discussions inside the West Wing on Tuesday about whether there would be any legal standing to limit birthright citizenship. But most officials hope the issue “just goes away,” a White House official said.
“It was not part of some grand midterm plan,” the official said.
The Justice Department declined to comment on the legality of what Trump vowed, referring questions to the White House.
Trump’s comments to Axios were cheered Tuesday by some fellow Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who has long sought to end birthright citizenship.
“This policy is a magnet for illegal immigration, out of the mainstream of the developed world, and needs to come to an end,” Graham said, adding that he would i ntroduce l egislation toward the same end.