[SpecialOlympian]

Executive orders come under the President’s responsibility to advise all branches of government on legally carrying out their responsibility. This would include advising the courts how birthright should be interpreted to comply with the law.

You don't receive birthright citizenship through a court. That's handled by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office.

[One Degree]

You don't receive birthright citizenship through a court. That's handled by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services office.

It was the only argument I thought you might present. Citizenship and immigration are part of homeland security. Law enforcement under Trump.
So, what exactly is your argument?

[blackjack21]

My commentary: the key phrasing in the 14th amendment may be "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." Until the 1960s, illegal aliens were perhaps not considered to be fully/naturally subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. To try and explain that briefly, think of concepts like diplomatic immunity; a foreign citizen is arguably not fully subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign country in the same way that a native is.

That phrasing basically means you have a duty of allegiance to the United States. Illegal aliens and foreign diplomats do not.

Well, this could just be a Trump deflection also. I think the timing is a mistake, but I am sure he has been advised differently. This may be rally the voters rhetoric, but imo a miscalculation.
I do support the idea due to our current situation. There are other possible solutions though. Such as deport the parents and they will take the children with them. If not, the children are better off with us.

That's not saying much though. The illegal alien who killed Tibbets is better off in a US prison than in a Mexican one, too.

Like what? I know that personally, my mind is blown... I had assumed the US would need a constitutional amendment but clearly I hadn't read into it very much. The use of the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was always curious to me but I never paid it much thought.

SCOTUS has never ruled on illegal aliens, but previous administrations extended welfare benefits to people born here whether they were entitled to citizenship or not.

It will be Christianity that brings down the red menace of the East. Mark my words.

......but I digress.

True, and that's why we need them over there.

The 14th Amendment was never intended to confer birthright citizenship to children of foreign nationals either not in the country legally or foreign nationals such as diplomats. This very point was brought up during the debate in congress before passage.

It wasn't intended to confer a right to abortion either. Basically, it was intended to grant citizenship to blacks, because the 13th Amendment didn't do that expressly, and also to discharge the debts of the confederacy and 5th Amendment liabilities to former slave owners.

Although it's not clear what they mean by "the political class", it looks like this is a winning issue for Trump and the GOP, of the variety where the left cannot let it go even though it's a loser for them.

It's a winning issue for GOP voters. GOP officials is another matter. That's why it's so sweet to see Paul Ryan taking parting shots as he heads for the exits. He's 100% globalist. Buh bye Paul!

We now seem to have the President proposing to legislate from the Oval Office. I've yet to hear how conservatives feel about it.

It will get litigated. It's an easy way to cut welfare spending. Now that the court has a solid conservative majority, they may get something like that upheld by the Court.

So he can't say that he's going to do it by executive order and then not do so without angering his base, which he wouldn't deliberately do.

By saying this, Trump is forcing leftists and RINOs in to the open. They have to react, and by reacting they expose who they really support, and it isn't Americans.

@Suntzu, you are a gentleman and scholar. Well done! I enjoyed reading the Slaughterhouse cases as much as the Insular decisions.

[SpecialOlympian]

It was the only argument I thought you might present. Citizenship and immigration are part of homeland security. Law enforcement under Trump.
So, what exactly is your argument?

They aren't a court and they're not specifically enforcing the law: they're a paper processing bureaucracy. Trump can't tell them to stop processing forms in accordance with established law, which it seems like someone finally got around to telling him:

[One Degree]

They aren't a court and they're not specifically enforcing the law: they're a paper processing bureaucracy. Trump can't tell them to stop processing forms in accordance with established law, which it seems like someone finally got around to telling him:

He can tell them they are misinterpreting the law on birth citizenship. That is his job. He would be negligent not to do so if he believes his interpretation is correct.
The judiciary and legislative may then decide their positions on it. At worse, he is forcing us to answer a question that has not been addressed. No one even thought about it until well after the civil war.
It is a good move no matter which way you want it to go.

[SpecialOlympian]

Seems like it has been addressed for 100+ years.

[Albert]

Wow, Paul Ryan is being a dick to Trump again. He did it in 2016 and now he is doing it in 2018 again. He is even on his way out. What a shill for the globalist, progressives and the rich who want no borders. RINO!

[jimjam]

Now that Donald has taken to unilaterally re writing the US Constitution can we expect an amendment proclaiming he and his son (s) president (s) for life?

[Albert]

[Hindsite]

Now that Donald has taken to unilaterally re writing the US Constitution can we expect an amendment proclaiming he and his son (s) president (s) for life? :?:

Making an executive order that upholds an Amendment to the Constitution is simply keeping his oath of office. HalleluYah

[jimjam]

Making an executive order that upholds an Amendment to the Constitution is simply keeping his oath of office. HalleluYah

you are truly awesome H.S. …………………….. I never would have figured you for a constitutional legal prodigy. Farfuckingout …….

[Hindsite]

New wide-ranging analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies‘ Steven Camarotta reveals that there are roughly 297,000 births per year to illegal immigrants in the U.S.

The children of illegal aliens are commonly known as “anchor babies,” as they anchor their illegal alien and noncitizen parents in the U.S. and eventually are allowed to bring an unlimited number of foreign relatives to the country through the process known as “chain migration.”

California — a sanctuary state for illegal aliens — has the largest number of illegal alien births with about 65,000 illegal alien births every year. Texas has about 51,000 illegal alien births every year, while Florida has about 16,000 illegal alien births every year.

The Supreme Court, however, has never explicitly ruled that the children of illegal aliens must be granted automatic citizenship and many legal scholars dispute the idea.

[Hong Wu]

This guy provides a good example of jurisdiction, which is a broad concept. It's also getting hard to see how anyone can argue with this. I'm just surprised it wasn't broadly discussed sooner.

[Zagadka]

So a lot of the people who rail against my "redraft the Constitution because it addresses irrelevancies" are very keen to make changes to it.

[Hong Wu]

It's not changes. As was noted earlier, the 14th Amendment wasn't being applied to illegal immigrants until the 1960's. It appears that was the change.


I'm going to put on my POD hat here and ask you if you have any sources or relevant statements you want to make, not just assertions?

[Zagadka]

I'd be happy to rewrite it so it makes sense.

[Hindsite]

I'd be happy to rewrite it so it makes sense.

It would have been better if he had included that statement with "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" to make it perfectly clear who was not included. However, I suspect he did not expect people to become so stupid.