Trump Vows to End Birthright Citizenship If Elected in 2024

Former President Donald Trump is vowing to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants if he is reelected to a second term, echoing statements he made in 2018 about ending the longstanding policy.
The former president, who is leading by double digits over the nearest GOP challenger, said that his “policy will choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration, deter more migrants from coming, and encourage many of the aliens Joe Biden has unlawfully let into our country to go back to their home countries.” That policy, he argued, would “put America first” by blocking birthright citizenship, a version of was first enabled in 1868 under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Trump also targeted President Biden’s immigration policies, arguing that the current administration has unlawfully failed to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. Since taking office, Biden and White House officials have claimed that it was the Trump administration that imposed bad policies and has called on Congress to act.
“My order will also end the unfair practice known as birth tourism, where hundreds of thousands of people from all over the planet squat in hotels for their last few weeks of pregnancy to illegitimately and illegally obtain U.S. citizenship for the child,” Trump remarked. “Often to later exploit chain migration to jump the line and get green cards for themselves and their family members.”
“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,” Trump said about five years ago. “It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.” However, Ryan told media outlets soon after his interview was published that a president “cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.”
If Trump, who also signaled ending the legal framework during his 2016 campaign, did issue an executive order on birthright citizenship, it could face major legal hurdles. The Fourteenth Amendment says that “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.”
In a 6–2 vote, the high court said that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to most people who were born in the United States, except for children of enemies of the country or of foreign diplomats. It also ruled that children born on Native American reservations may be exempt.