In a freewheeling interview with NBC Information Sunday, President-elect Donald Trump provided a head-scratching rationalization for his plan to wage an assault on birthright citizenship.
“Did you know, if somebody sets a foot — just a foot, one foot, you don’t need two — on our land, congratulations, you are now a citizen of the United States of America,” Trump mentioned, when discussing birthright citizenship.
“Yes, we’re going to end that, because it’s ridiculous,” he added.
Trump appeared to explain a hypothetical state of affairs through which a girl would give start to an toddler who — both able to strolling at start or helped alongside by somebody wanting to win a guess — would set one foot on American soil and the opposite in both Mexico or Canada.
It is usually doable Trump was imagining an toddler hopping or standing on one leg. Neither state of affairs is believable.
Trump additionally repeatedly requested whether or not the interviewer, Kristen Welker of “Meet the Press,” knew that america was the one nation that conferred citizenship by birthright.
“We’re the only country that has it, you know,” Trump mentioned. “You know we’re the only country that has it.”
Birthright citizenship is usually acknowledged within the Americas, together with in Canada and Mexico. Also recognized by its Latin authorized time period as “jus soli,” it’s the idea of conferring citizenship by start in a given nation. Most nations as an alternative acknowledge “jus sanguinis,” which as an alternative confers citizenship based mostly on the nationality of an individual’s mother and father.
Welker didn’t problem Trump’s completely incorrect description of how birthright citizenship works or that america will not be alone in recognizing it. However she requested whether or not Trump meant to enact his proposed change by means of govt motion.
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“Well, if we can, through executive action,” Trump mentioned. “I was going to do it through executive action, but then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you.”
Birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Modification to the Structure. The president can not use govt motion to overturn a constitutional modification, although authorized specialists anticipate the Trump administration to problem the long-settled authorized interpretation by means of the courts.
Trump has spent important time in southern Florida, which is dwelling to a big Cuban-American neighborhood.
He doubtless got here up with this bizarre description of birthright citizenship by free-associating the problem with the now-defunct coverage of permitting Cuban migrants to remain inside america and pursue citizenship upon touching American soil. The coverage was referred to as “wet-foot, dry-foot.”
Throughout this yr’s presidential marketing campaign, Trump repeatedly described immigrants as coming from jails and psychological establishments. He was doubtless resurrecting assertions he heard throughout the period of the Mariel boatlift 4 many years in the past.
