Despite Supreme Court precedent, Trump issues order banning birthright citizenship.
The “American Dream” has long served as an ideal to strive for in the United States. Supposedly, with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, any American citizen is capable of attaining the security, comfort and status they desire. Now, President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship is putting this dream in jeopardy for people all across the country. In doing so, it is raising constitutional concerns that the United States had supposedly resolved more than a century prior.
The executive order, which Trump issued almost immediately after returning to the White House, states that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrant parents or people whose parents are in the US would temporarily no longer receive the citizenship that is supposed to be automatic at birth. Temporarily blocked by four different federal judges, the order would mark a shift from citizenship assured to anyone born in the United States to being based on one’s ancestry. This is a practice that most western countries gave up quite some time ago, for good reason.
Implementing this order would be more than simply inhumane and unjust. The demand goes directly against the Fourteenth Amendment. This amendment states clearly that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” While many aspects and writings contained within the Constitution are at least somewhat ambiguous and could potentially be subject to interpretation, this clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is not one of them. It is difficult to see how its meaning could be left open to interpretation by the courts. However, the unconstitutionality of the president’s order certainly does not stop Trump and his supporters from defending it.
The implementation of Trump’s executive order would require the reversal of a precedent that the Supreme Court set in 1898. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court ruled that anyone born in the United States is a valid citizen of the country. Nothing in the ruling conveyed that this did not apply to children of parents who do not have citizenship. A precedent has already been set. Now, parents all across the country are left reeling as they are faced with this new concern for the future of their children.
Trump’s birthright citizenship order is just one out of many in a series of shocking and questionable statements made since he reentered the White House. From imposing high tariffs on both Canada and Mexico to renaming the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America,” Trump has been making changes that many supporters failed to expect. Many more Americans have been questioning the validity of the orders themselves as Trump has shown little regard for what he should and should not be able to get away with while in office and has been pushing boundaries. In the process, his actions have been raising questions that most members of our country have never before felt the need to consider.
The next four years of Trump’s presidency have kicked off with a bang. Americans live in a democracy that they have chosen to elect Trump as the President of. Now, as the consequences of this election begin to take effect, all people can do is wait with bated breath to see how things play out with the future of countless lives hanging in the balance.
