President Donald Trump plans to abolish the right to citizenship for anyone born in the United States -- guaranteed by the 14’th Amendment to the US Constitution -- with an executive order, he said in an interview excerpt released on Tuesday.
While Trump asserts that he can change the provision with such an order, that is far from certain: there is a set process for modifying the constitution, which does not include presidential decree.
His comments come shortly before a hotly-contested midterm election in which the president has sought to place the issue of immigration front and centre. "It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t," Trump said in an interview with Axios. "Now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order."
The president’s opposition to the constitutional provision centers specifically on the fact that children born in the US to immigrant parents -- whether they are in the country legally or not -- are automatically citizens.
"We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby and the person is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous and it has to end," he said.
The Paris school headteacher announced his decision in an email
A powerful government agency last week arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the founder of the Aam Aadmi Party
The United Nations said last year that more than 100,000 people had been trafficked into online scam centres in Cambodia
Russian social media channels have been flooded in the days since the shooting with appeals to help find victims
Canada has heavily relied on immigration to boost its labour force and economic growth
That compares with 3,770 for the same period last year and 4,162 for 2022, the previous record high