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发帖数: 185 | 1 President Trump plans to sign an executive order that would remove the right
to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born
on U.S. soil, he said yesterday in an exclusive interview for "Axios on HBO,
" a new four-part documentary news series debuting on HBO this Sunday at 6:
30 p.m. ET/PT.
Why it matters: This would be the most dramatic move yet in Trump's hardline
immigration campaign, this time targeting "anchor babies" and "chain
migration." And it will set off another stand-off with the courts, as Trump
’s power to do this through executive action is debatable to say the least.
[Get more stories like this in our daily morning newsletter, Axios AM. Sign
up here.]
Trump told "Axios on HBO" that he has run the idea of ending birthright
citizenship by his counsel and plans to proceed with the highly
controversial move, which certainly will face legal challenges.
"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess
what? You don't," Trump said, declaring he can do it by executive order.
When told that's very much in dispute, Trump replied: "You can definitely do
it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an
executive order."
"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 continued. "It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it
has to end." (More than 30 countries, most in the Western Hemisphere,
provide birthright citizenship.)
"It's in the process. It'll happen ... with an executive order."
The president expressed surprise that "Axios on HBO" knew about his secret
plan: "I didn't think anybody knew that but me. I thought I was the only one
. "
Behind the scenes: "Axios on HBO" had been working for weeks on a story on
Trump’s plans for birthright citizenship, based on conversations with
several sources, including one close to the White House Counsel’s office.
The legal challenges would force the courts to decide on a constitutional
debate over the 14th Amendment, which 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 State
wherein they reside."
Be smart: Few immigration and constitutional scholars believe it is within
the president's power to change birthright citizenship, former U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel Lynden Melmed tells Axios
.
But some conservatives have argued that the 14th Amendment was only intended
to provide citizenship to children born in the U.S. to lawful permanent
residents — not to unauthorized immigrants or those on temporary visas.
John Eastman, a constitutional scholar and director of Chapman University's
Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, told "Axios on HBO" that the
Constitution has been misapplied over the past 40 or so years. He says the
line "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" originally referred to people
with full, political allegiance to the U.S. — green card holders and
citizens.
Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump
administration, recently took up this argument in the Washington Post.
Anton said that Trump could, via executive order, "specify to federal
agencies that the children of noncitizens are not citizens" simply because
they were born on U.S. soil. (It’s not yet clear whether Trump will take
this maximalist argument, though his previous rhetoric suggests there’s a
good chance.)
But others — such as Judge James C. Ho, who was appointed by Trump to Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals, in New Orleans — say the line in the amendment
refers to the legal obligation to follow U.S. laws, which applies to all
foreign visitors (except diplomats) and immigrants. He has written that
changing how the 14th Amendment is applied would be "unconstitutional."
Between the lines: Until the 1960s, the 14th Amendment was never applied to
undocumented or temporary immigrants, Eastman said.
Between 1980 and 2006, the number of births to unauthorized immigrants —
which opponents of birthright citizenship call "anchor babies" —
skyrocketed to a peak of 370,000, according to a 2016 study by Pew Research.
It then declined slightly during and following the Great Recession.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that children born to immigrants who are
legal permanent residents have citizenship. But those who claim the 14th
Amendment should not apply to everyone point to the fact that there has been
no ruling on a case specifically involving undocumented immigrants or those
with temporary legal status.
The bottom line: If Trump follows through on the executive order, "the
courts would have to weigh in in a way they haven't," Eastman said.
The full interview will air on "Axios on HBO" this Sunday, Nov. 4, at 6:30 p
.m. ET/PT. |
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