Ending birthright citizenship is unconstitutional

Jordan Boyer, Photo Editor

Recently President Donald Trump remarked in an interview to “Axios on HBO” that he is going to attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States by enacting an Executive Order. 

According to the Associated Press, he is going to attempt this by enacting an executive order that would end birthright citizenship for new born babies of illegal immigrants that are born on U.S soil.  

If Trump is successful in this, he would be going against the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. 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.”  

Trump commented on the legality of his ambition to end birthright citizenship and stated, “they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.” He added that “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.” 

His statement has validity to it, other nations have different birthright citizenship policies, most just do not grant citizenship right at birth like it is here currently in the U.S. However, this is an outright violation of the constitution that is the supreme law of the land. Just because other nations have different policies, that does not give our leaders the right to directly violate the constitution.  

This is certainly going to be controversial when it comes to the legality of this possible executive order. There is already discontent from public figures about Trump’s legality of his executive order. Omar Jadwat, the director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union said on Oct. 30, “If you are born in the United States, you’re a citizen,” he said, adding that it was “outrageous that the president can think he can override constitutional guarantees by issuing an executive order,” 

According to CNN, Paul Ryan the Speaker of the House, questioned Trump’s legality stating that Trump can not end birthright citizenship with an Executive Order. This led to Trump attacking Ryan stating that he “knows nothing about” birthright citizenship and “should be focusing on holding the Majority” in the House of Representatives “rather than giving his opinions” on the issue. 

The president of the United States should uphold the constitution as our supreme law of governance. Trump seems to be getting a little power hungry to say the least, trying to abolish policies we Americans are guaranteed by the constitution and we are certainly very proud of. He is also attacking other politicians who question his authority, and that is never a good sign. 

As of right now, there is no executive order, so there is no need to cause a massive uproar or anything, but you should still be worried. Executive Orders unlike other federal policies get enacted with little to no trouble so there is a strong possibility of this order occurring. 

Jordan Boyer is a senior history major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].