White House senior adviser Stephen Miller says President Trump is currently reviewing “all legal options” to end the country’s birthright citizenship policy which has allowed millions of illegal aliens to secure American citizenship for their U.S.-born children.
Last week, Trump told the media is he “very seriously” looking at signing an executive order that will end birthright citizenship in the U.S., calling the policy “frankly ridiculous.”
During an interview with Fox News’ John Roberts, Miller said the White House is, in fact, reviewing “all legal options” to end birthright citizenship where an average of about 300,000 U.S.-born children of illegal aliens — often referred to as “anchor babies” — are born every year. According to the Fox News interview:
ROBERTS: The president indicated this the other day when he was leaving to get on Marine One. He said that he is looking at birthright citizenship — which is enshrined in the 14th Amendment. What are the plans for that? [Emphasis added]
MILLER: Well, I noticed that you worked in that it is “enshrined into the 14th Amendment.” Many constitutional scholars would wholeheartedly disagree with that. Most Americans think it is crazy that you can come across the border perhaps in your ninth month of pregnancy… [Emphasis added]
ROBERTS: That’s the argument, what do you plan to do about it?
MILLER: Well, we’re looking at all legal options. But I think the key point I want to leave you with today … is that many legal scholars believe that the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” makes clear it does not apply to people here on a temporary basis or here illegally. And so the point would be then, what can we as a government do to execute the president’s obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” The Constitution, being the supreme law of the land, and so what is the correct interpretation of the 14th Amendment. That’s something we have to look at. [Emphasis added]
ROBERTS: So when do you plan to do this?
MILLER: I don’t have any news to make on that today, but I want to leave you with this: For years, Americans had politicians of both parties come and go and surrender their interests to foreign countries and foreign powers. This president, alone, has stood up and protected Americans’ interests, whether it is on trade, on immigration, or foreign policy. He’s ended decades of debacles to put the interests of U.S. citizens first and we should all celebrate that. [Emphasis added]
Miller’s statement comes nearly a year after Trump first promised that he was readying an executive order to end birthright citizenship, but the issue has been stalled since October 2018. To date, the U.S. Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the children of illegal aliens must be granted birthright citizenship, and many legal scholars dispute the idea.
The children of illegal aliens, after being granted birthright citizenship, are able to anchor their illegal alien and non-citizen parents in the U.S. and eventually are allowed to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country through the legal immigration process known as “chain migration.”
The U.S. is nearly alone in granting birthright citizenship to the children of foreign nationals and, specifically, illegal aliens. For example, the U.S. and Canada are the only two developed nations with birthright citizenship. On the other hand, countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, and Germany all have either outlawed birthright citizenship or never had such a policy.
Today, there are at least 4.5 million anchor babies in the U.S., exceeding the annual roughly four million American babies born every year and costing American taxpayers about $2.4 billion every year to subsidize hospital costs. Every year, about 300,000 anchor babies are born in the country and as of June, there has been an average of about 124,000 anchor babies already born this year.
Story cited here.
