President Donald Trump plans to abolish the right to citizenship
for anyone born in the United States
-- guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution -- with an executive order, he said in an interview excerpt released Tuesday.
-- guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution -- with an executive order, he said in an interview excerpt released Tuesday.
While Trump
asserts that he can change the provision with such an order, that is far
from certain: there is a set process for modifying the constitution,
which does not include presidential decree.
His
comments come shortly before a hotly-contested midterm election in which
the president has sought to place the issue of immigration front and
centre.
"It was always told to me that you needed a
constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said in an
interview with Axios. "Now they're saying I can do it just with an
executive order."
The president's opposition to the
constitutional provision centres specifically on the fact that children
born in the US to immigrant parents -- whether they are in the country
legally or not -- are automatically citizens.
"We're
the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby and
the person is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years
with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous and it has
to end," he said.
Trump said he had spoken to legal counsel about it and that the change is in the works.
"It's in the process, it'll happen -- with an executive order."
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