Could Trump Plug the Anchor Baby Loophole?
If Donald Trump is elected in November (not a foregone conclusion) would he attempt to plug the anchor baby loophole?
That’s the insane policy by which babies born to illegal alien mothers on U.S. soil receive automatic birthright citizenship.
Thus, American nationality policy is taken from U.S. lawmakers and turned over to foreign lawbreakers.
It’s outrageous.
A recent NBC article covers this issue.
"Trump's call to end birthright citizenship would face a mountain of opposition," the headline reads.
In May of last year, Trump released a campaign video … saying he would sign an executive order on day one of his presidency that would ensure that children born to parents who do not have legal status in the U.S. will not be considered U.S. citizens.
“The United States is among the only countries in the world that says even if neither parent is a citizen or even lawfully in the country, their future children are automatic citizens the moment the parents trespass onto our soil,” Trump said in the video.
The usual suspects scream bloody murder, but many ordinary Americans would support plugging this ridiculous loophole.
Birthright citizenship has long been understood to be required under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The language was included in the constitutional amendment enacted after the Civil War to ensure that Black former slaves and their children were recognized as citizens.
It was drafted to guarantee the citizenship of black former slaves, not for the children of illegal invaders.
“Litigation is a certainty. It’s directly in the teeth of the 14th Amendment. It would essentially be an attempt to tear down one of the core constitutional protections that has been a key part of our country," ACLU lawyer Omar Jadwat told NBC.
On the contrary, it would be an attempt to abolish a bad policy.
Under Trump’s proposal, at least one parent would need to be a citizen or legal resident for a child to receive birthright citizenship. He indicated in his video that the policy would not apply retroactively. The order, Trump said, would also address so-called “birth tourism,” a situation in which Republicans claim people visit the U.S. toward the end of a pregnancy in order to ensure the child is born a U.S. citizen.
Birth tourism is a real phenomenon and it’s another reason this policy must be changed.
Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, is quoted in the article.
Krikorian’s group has previously said that there could be up to 400,000 children born per year to undocumented parents and thousands of children born as a result of birth tourism every year.
None of these children should be U.S. citizens.
Aside from an executive order, there are other things a President Trump could do.
The Trump campaign has said the president would order the Social Security Administration to refuse to issue Social Security numbers to newborn children without proof of the parents’ immigration status. He would issue a similar order to the State Department regarding passports.
Krikorian… favors that approach as it would not require any action from Congress and would immediately prompt a lawsuit that would get the legal issue before the Supreme Court in short order.
So how would that case turn out? How would the Supreme Court rule?
“It’s something that the Supreme Court may well decide against the president if he were to take this step," Krikorian said.
And then?
If Trump loses that case, then the next step is clear, he [Krikorian] added: There would need to be an effort to start the difficult process of amending the Constitution.
Yes, that would be worth it.
If Trump is elected, he should issue an executive order and take other steps to plug the anchor baby loophole.
If that approach fails, the Constitution must be amended.
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