WASHINGTON – President Trump is taking another run at one of his long-standing immigration priorities: birthright citizenship.
The Supreme Court blocked the president’s first attempt at limiting the practice several weeks ago. Now, the White House is targeting narrower categories.
“We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair,” President Trump said Thursday.
Back in June, Justices ruled the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States, even when their parents are here illegally or temporarily. But the Court also recognized that birthright citizenship has several narrow exceptions, and that’s what the administration is now targeting.
“The president is using his authority as commander in chief to sign first, an executive order using the new ruling the Supreme Court issued to expand the definitions of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship,” said White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
Effective immediately, this order directs federal agencies not to recognize automatic citizenship in certain cases where neither parent is an American citizen.
“That includes, for example, alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments,” Miller explained.
The second executive order cracks down on what the administration calls “birth tourism.”
“The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland, they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park. But the real reason they’re here is to have a child. To make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country and then have a U.S. citizen child that gives them access under this broken system to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans,” said Miller.
Critics say the White House is still pushing beyond the constitutional boundaries the Court just set. In a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote, “Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will be met with the same fate as the last one.”
