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Donald Trumptook his tough stance on immigration even further on Monday night, when the president revealed that he wants to sign an executive order that would terminate birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants.
“It’s in the process. It’ll happen with an executive order,” Trump, 72, said of his plan during an interview withAxios on HBO. “I didn’t think anybody knew that but me. I thought I was the only one.”
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump continued, adding that White House lawyers were working on it. “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress but now they’re saying I can do it with just an executive order.”
ButThe New York Timesreported that, in order to accomplish his plan, Trump would need to find a way around the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which gives right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on American soil.
TheTimesnoted that the the majority oflegal scholarsagree that Trump cannot legally do away with birthright citizenship.
Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told theTimesthat Trump’s latest idea is both illegal and offensive.
“Aside from being unconstitutional, such an executive order would exacerbate racial tensions, exploit fears and drive further polarization across the country at a moment that calls for the promotion of unity and inclusion,” she said in a statement.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end,” he added.
In fact, many countries, including Canada, Mexico and others in the Western Hemisphere grant birthright citizenship.
Immigration has been a major focus of controversy throughout Trump’s presidential campaign and presidency — from his promises to build a wall to his now-reversed zero-tolerance policy that separated migrant children from their families and held them at detainment centers at the U.S./Mexico border.
The president has also been escalating his threats about a migrant caravan of 4,000 Central Americans walking through Central America fleeing violence and grim living conditions in their home countries and expected to seek asylum in the United States. On Monday, the Pentagon announced the deployment of 5,200 additionally troops to meet the caravan at the border.
“I called up the military, they’re wasting their time,” he told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in a pre-recorded interview that aired Monday, maintaining his unconfirmed claim that the group of immigrants coming included “many gang members.”
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As for what would happen to those immigrants applying for asylum, Trump said he plans to “build tent cities” and “hold” them there before their pending court dates rather than release them into the U.S.
“If they applied for asylum, we’re going to hold them until such time as their trial takes place,” Trump told Ingraham. “We’re going to put up, we’re going to build tent cities. We’re going to put tents up all over the place. We’re not going to build structures and spend all of this, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars — we’re going to have tents. … They’re going to be very nice.”
source: people.com
