Monday, February 10, 2025

Trump seeks to end birthright citizenship for some

-

A US district court judge has temporarily blocked the executive order signed by President Donald Trump Monday that would deny US citizenship to children born in the US of migrants who entered the country illegally, the Associated Press reports.

WASHINGTON — Martin Luther King Memorial (denisbin/Flickr Creative Commons)

US District Judge John Coughenour said the executive order, which would redefine the concept of “birthright citizenship,” was “blatantly unconstitutional,” the AP reported.

But Mr Trump finds the definition of birthright citizenship in the 14th Amendment, to which Judge Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, referred, ridiculous: “We’re going to have to get it changed,” he told NBC News during his first extended interview after winning the election in November. “We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous.”

The amendment grants citizenship to almost everyone born inside the country. Among the 20 most developed countries in the world, only Canada and the US allocate citizenship using the legal principle of “jus soli,” the right of soil.

But there can be little question about the wording of the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War:

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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. …

Mr Trump’s attorneys told the judge they believed that the children of migrants who entered the country illegally are not subject to the jurisdiction of the US or the state wherein they reside and are thus excluded from this amendment.

The temporary restraining order applies to all states in the US; it arose from a case filed by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington. Four separate lawsuits seeking to block the executive order have been filed by attorneys general in 18 other states, but the Washington case was the first to be heard by a federal judge.

Editorial

While the president certainly has the power to issue executive orders as he pleases, he does not have the power to change the Constitution without other approvals and a ratification process. Furthermore, although the order would not take away citizenship on the basis of birth in the US from anyone who has it now, it would deny this 156-year-old right to children born here after February 19.

Paul Katulahttps://news.schoolsdo.org
Paul Katula is the executive editor of the Voxitatis Research Foundation, which publishes this blog. For more information, see the About page.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

Some IL superintendents report absenteeism increase

0
Some schools are reporting a momentary uptick in absenteeism, reportedly due to the president's recent executive order tied to immigration enforcement.

Digital Harbor HS closed after vandalism