The idea of challenging birthright citizenship also has support from key pro-Trump think tankers in Washington. It’s a move favored by Sessions, as well as White House adviser Stephen Miller and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, an immigration hawk and longtime Trump ally who drove the idea during the spring of 2017, when he was being considered for a senior position at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump has discussed revoking birthright citizenship periodically over the past two years, in the context of broader discussions on immigration. was not getting the sort of television coverage he had hoped. From their vantage point, the president’s decision to raise the issue now was a concession of sorts that the story about migrant caravans heading toward the U.S. Some former advisers expressed frustration at the president’s surprise admission that he is considering an executive order, viewing it as an indication of growing anxiety about Republicans’ chances of keeping hold of the House. One said the White House counsel’s office had been reviewing the proposal - among many other immigration issues - but that it had not been under serious consideration by the president’s legal team. Trump’s response when he was asked about the issue of birthright citizenship caught some administration officials by surprise. And it has to end.” In fact, Canada, Mexico and many other countries also grant birthright citizenship.
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years, with all of those benefits,” Trump said in the Axios interview. But as the president looks to rally his base between now and next Tuesday, the idea could be part of his closing argument for the midterm elections. They say a constitutional amendment is necessary to make the change. Whether Trump will actually follow through on the idea is unclear: He backed the idea only when prompted by questioning, and many Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have said Trump cannot end birthright citizenship by executive order. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is also a longtime backer of the idea.īy signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. They include a handful of intellectuals associated with conservative think tanks, such as the Claremont Institute, based in California. In doing so, Trump resurfaced a controversial and legally dicey idea he first floated early in his presidential campaign, one that a small and dedicated group of conservatives had pushed for years before Trump arrived on the political scene. And when the idea came up at a Heritage Foundation symposium in September, one scholar at the conservative think tank cautioned that those who “even hover near the question of birthright citizenship immediately feel the wrath of the ruling class.”īut President Donald Trump has never been cowed by elite opinion, and on Tuesday, less than a week before the midterm elections, he made it a major political flashpoint, telling Axios in an interview posted Tuesday that he was preparing an executive order to end the constitutional guarantee of American citizenship to anyone born within the U.S.