A top government official quickly dismissed the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump will be able to fulfill one of his campaign promises, ending birthright citizenship.
"Last time I checked, the President can't override the Constitution," said Neal Katyal, a former acting solicitor general. Speaking to MSNBC on Sunday, he said that the "14th Amendment is as clear as day that there is no way he can do that." "If he tries, he will lose in court every day of the week," Katyal added.
.@Neal_Katyal on Trump’s call to end birthright citizenship: “The 14th Amendment is as clear as day that there is no way he can do that. If he tries that, he will lose in court every day of the week.” pic.twitter.com/a5WHyn63Ea
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) November 10, 2024
The right, rooted in the aforementioned amendment, states that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
Established after the Civil War, the amendment was meant to guarantee citizenship to freed slaves and their descendants, regardless of parental status.
Trump has repeatedly spoken against birthright citizenship, raging against the concept of "anchor babies." He promised in a campaign video that he would end the right on his first day in office, complaining about the fact that the U.S. is one of the few countries granting citizenship to children of non-citizens or undocumented parents at birth.
"It's one of the biggest misunderstandings of the law," he said, adding that birthright citizenship incentivizes illegal immigration and "birth tourism," where foreign nationals visit the U.S. to ensure their children are born as American citizens.
While some immigration hardliners argue that the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction" excludes children of undocumented parents from the amendment, legal scholars across the political spectrum have largely rejected this view.
In a related proposal, Trump's team suggests that Social Security numbers and passports would require proof of parental immigration status, an idea immigration advocates say could disrupt the registration process for all children born in the U.S. Emma Winger from the American Immigration Council told Noticias Telemundo this would introduce new bureaucratic steps, saying, "People have always relied on birth certificates alone. This would be a radical shift."
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