President Trump plans to sign an executive order to “remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S.-soil”. A proposal that is causing big controversy and is described by several experts as “absurd”.
With only a week before the US mid-year elections, Trump sits for an interview with Axios Chief Executive Jim VandeHei and states, “How ridiculous, we’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby 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.”
Mr. Trump explains to Axios that he can go through with his plan with an executive order saying “It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t.”
The 14th Amendment, passed after the Civil War, specifically says that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
This is perhaps considered one of the most aggressive actions taken by a US president against immigration laws, and is strongly opposed by leading Democrats as well as immigrants-rights activists.
A Political Move for the Mid-year Elections?
On the other hand, such a proposal comes right before the US mid-year elections. According to Bloomberg, Trump’s Republican Party is bracing for heavy losses with a potential of a Democratic takeover.
According to the Washington Post, Trump has wrongly claimed that the US is the only country that offers birthright citizenship. In fact a list compiled by Numbers USA states that 33 countries offer birthright citizenship and that the US and Canada are the only two developed countries to fall in this list.
A full interview with Trump will air on Sunday on Axios where we will have a clearer idea of the proposed plan and the extent of its legality.
Trump’s continuous attempts to abolish immigration from US soils entirely are again putting great hardship upon many US citizens, immigrants and their families.
The Downside for Egyptians
Technically speaking, another attempt of a constitutional afoul conducted by Trump should not affect the Egyptian society in any way. But perhaps it would cause distress to many Egyptians who are seeking to attain an American citizenship for their newborns. In fact many Egyptians have been seeking the US and the Canadian citizenship by birthright citizenship for years. Under these new circumstances however, it is now difficult to tell what the final verdict would be.
Credits:
Bloomberg, Washington Post, Axios
