Trump vows to deny birthright citizenship to children of immigrants
3 Min Read
If he wins in the 2024 elections, US former President Trump pledges to deny the children of immigrants to become automatic citizens by birth.
-
President Donald Trump holds a signed Constitution Day proclamation after he spoke to the White House Conference on American History at the National Archives Museum, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Washington (AP)
Former US President Donald Trump has vowed that if he is elected president in 2024, he will not issue citizenship by birth to children of illegal immigrants living in the country.
In a campaign video shared on Twitter on Tuesday, Trump -- currently the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination -- promised to issue an executive order ordering federal agencies to end what he called birthright citizenship.
Trump's action will undoubtedly be challenged in court because it goes against the essence of the US Constitution's 19th-century amendment.
Read more: UN experts: 'Exhaustion of being Black is present' in US daily lives
The right to citizenship originates from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution which is known to have ended black slavery in the southern US states and overturned a Supreme Court decision that prevented slaves and free Africans from becoming US citizens.
The amendment gave citizenship to all those "born or naturalized in the United States," even those who were previously enslaved. It has been interpreted to include all parents, regardless of whether the parents were in the country lawfully or not.
However, the cruel institution of slavery and pervasive prejudice and repression of the African American population persisted throughout the US for a very long time after the amendment was enacted in 1868.
Trump promised to issue an executive order to restrict birthright citizenship while he was president in 2018, but he never did so. At the time, several legal experts expressed skepticism about Trump's ability to use executive power to roll back the right.
Read more: Racial discrimination at the core of US healthcare
As a result of the record number of people detained attempting to enter the country illegally in recent years, Trump again slammed Joe Biden yesterday, branding the citizenship guarantee for children born in the US a "magnet" for illegal immigration.
Trump is attempting to win over Republican voters who favor a tougher immigration policy. As President, Trump pushed for stricter immigration regulations and moved toward constructing a wall along the US-Mexico border he vowed to do as a candidate in 2016.
Biden has come under fire from Republicans for reversing Trump's extreme policies.
Biden's new regulation limiting asylum access matches Trump's policies that were blocked by US courts. Additionally, the action refutes claims made by Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign that it was "wrong" for individuals to be unable to apply for asylum in the United States.
