Trump: Birthright Babies Not Citizens

Donald Trump said that he doesn’t think people born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants are American citizens.

The Republican presidential front-runner said in an interview on Fox News:

“I don’t think they have American citizenship and if you speak to some very, very good lawyers — and I know some will disagree — but many of them agree with me and you’re going to find they do not have American citizenship. We have to start a process where we take back our country. Our country is going to hell.”

Trump added he would “test it out” in the courts.

Trump has called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants living in the United States — allowing the “good ones” to return through an expedited legal process.

“What happens is they’re in Mexico, they’re going to have a baby, they move over here for a couple of days, they have the baby — (the lawyers are) saying it’s not going to hold up in court,” Trump said.

Trump announced in his immigration policy proposal that he wants to end birthright citizenship — preventing future undocumented immigrants from giving birth to an American citizen simply by virtue of being born on U.S. soil.

(h/t CNN)

Reality

Most legal scholars will say birthright citizenship is a constitutional right from the 14th Amendment which says:

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

Other Republican presidential candidates have joined Trump’s call for ending birthright citizenship, suggested birthright citizenship could be ended by simply passing a law through Congress that defines the clause “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

However Trump so far has taken the extra step of suggesting doing so retroactively and stripping certain Americans of their citizenship.

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