President-elect Donald Trump said he still plans to end birthright citizenship in the United States on day one — but was unable to provide insight into how he would go around the 14th Amendment.
“We're going to have to get it changed. We'll maybe have to go back to the people,” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on that aired Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “But we have to end it.”
Trump also falsely noted that only the United States has birthright citizenship, despite other countries like Brazil and Canada also offering birthright citizenship.
Welker asked how Trump plans to end birthright citizenship and whether he would do it through executive action. Trump responded: “If we can, through executive action.”
“I was going to do it through executive action but then we had to fix Covid first, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “We have to end it. It's ridiculous.”
The 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." A constitutional amendment approved by Congress requires ratification by three-fourths of the states.
Trump also in the interview said he wanted to “work something out” in regards to Dreamers, or children who immigrated with their families at a very young age and have since grown up in the United States.
“We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age,” Trump said. “And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don't even speak the language of their country. And yes, we're going to do something about the Dreamers.”
Trump also said he would work with Democrats on a plan for Dreamers but that they have “made it very, very difficult to do anything” and that President Joe Biden should have “done something” on Dreamers during the past four years. (Efforts at bipartisan immigration reform in the Senate earlier this year collapsed due to opposition from then-candidate Trump.)
He added: “Republicans are very open to Dreamers.”
“I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out,” Trump said.
On Dreamers, he added, “They've become successful. They have great jobs. In some cases they have small businesses. Some cases they might have large businesses. And we're going to have to do something with them.”
But when Trump was asked about his plans of mass deportation — and whether he still plans to deport everyone who is here illegally — Trump said, “I think you have to do it.” He said he will start with people with a criminal history, then expand out.
“It's a hard – it’s a very tough thing to do. But you have to have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country,” Trump said. “And we're going to make it very easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test.”
He added, “They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country. They can't come out of prisons.”
Republicans have said they expect Trump to immediately tackle immigration.
Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno, a former luxury-car dealer who defeated Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio, said Trump will tackle immigration as soon as he takes office. “We're going to resolve immigration the first 40 to 60 days,” Moreno told a crowd of Illinois Republicans at a holiday luncheon event Friday.
The Colombia-born Moreno is Ohio's first Latino U.S. senator.
“We’ve got to fix immigration. This election was ultimately about two issues at the end of the day: open borders and high prices. That was the entire election, and we got to fix the immigration system. It's the easiest thing to fix intellectually. It's the hardest thing to fix emotionally, and I hope to play a role in making that happen.”
Shia Kapos contributed to this article.
Comments
Post a Comment