Article from Reason by Joe Setyon.
In an interview with Axios on HBO that aired this morning, Trump suggested he could do away with birthright citizenship, which was instituted by the 14th Amendment. As Reason‘s Elizabeth Nolan Brown explained, birthright citizenship grants American citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.
The relevant portion of the amendment reads: “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 doesn’t believe that should necessarily apply to the American-born children of undocumented immigrants. An executive order, he suggested, might clear things up. “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” he told Axios. “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.” The president added that the change is “in the process. It’ll happen…with an executive order.”
Not so fast, says Amash. He indicated on Twitter that presidents can’t, in fact, just sign executive orders to do away with parts of the Constitution or laws.
A president cannot amend Constitution or laws via executive order. Concept of natural-born citizen in #14thAmendment derives from natural-born subject in Britain. Phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” excludes mainly foreign diplomats, who are not subject to U.S. laws.
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) October 30, 2018
Read the entire article at Reason.
Image Credit: By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America (Justin Amash Uploaded by AlbertHerring) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
wpDiscuz
The 14th Amendment seems ambiguous. This needs to go to the Supreme Court. Executive order is a good place to start.
And the 14th had one purpose and one purpose only. To insure the former slaves would have the rights of American citizens. – They should have put in a sundown clause of no more then 50 years though. who’d a thunk it?
this right was a one time only thing, but polition ruined it. 18 1867 congress did this as an honor for a freidly Chinese family. to have his baby to become an us citizen……researce this, it was just a one time thing