Trump Threatens to End Birthright Citizenship: Can He Do It?

President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to end birthright citizenship on his first day in office next month. But the move could pose serious problems, the newspaper writes. Politico.

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Trump, without giving details, suggested he could implement his plan by executive order. Today, birthright citizenship is automatically granted to anyone born on U.S. soil. That rule is enshrined in the Constitution, so any attempt to overturn it would likely invite lawsuits.

Back in 2018, Trump told Axios that he planned to sign an executive order that would end this constitutional right: "It certainly could have been done by an act of Congress. But now I'm being told I can only do it by executive order."

During his first presidency, Trump took no action to address the issue.

On the subject: Lindsey Graham Proposes Not Giving US Citizenship to US-Born Children of Tourists and Illegals

This time, however, ending birthright citizenship is one of many changes Trump promises to implement to curb immigration and illegal border crossings, in addition to mass deportations of illegal immigrants.

What might happen if the newly elected president actually tried to abolish birthright citizenship? Well, birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted in 1868. It states that anyone born in the United States is automatically a U.S. citizen, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.

According to the 14th Amendment, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Can Trump revoke birthright citizenship by executive order? Unlikely. Legal experts say no executive order can overturn the 14th Amendment because the president lacks the authority to change the Constitution.

If Trump had issued an order directing the Social Security Administration to deny identification to anyone who couldn't prove both of his or her parents were U.S. citizens, the order would likely have been challenged in the courts and ultimately overturned, said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“There are virtually no respected lawyers or scholars who agree with President-elect Trump, and there is no precedent to support this theory,” Reichlin-Melnick said.

Trump could restrict immigration through an executive order that makes it harder to enter the country and have children there, but the right to citizenship by birth is guaranteed by the Constitution, said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

"The main reason it's in the Constitution is to eliminate the possibility of politicians interfering," Winkler explained.

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So how do you change the amendment?

Trump could try to end birthright citizenship through a new constitutional amendment, but that would be nearly impossible due to the support required to pass it. A constitutional amendment requires the support of two-thirds of both houses of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures.

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