Trump Tries To Change The Constitution With An Executive Order

Donald Trump wasted no time after being sworn in, issuing a couple of dozens of executive orders. Most were not surprising, but illustrated that we are in for a cruel four years. Perhaps the most ridiculous was an effort to overturn a provision of the Constitution with an executive order. That order would deny citizenship to those born in this country of undocumented immigrants.

Here is what the New York Times wrote about that order:

President Trump on Monday declared that his government would no longer treat the U.S.-born children of undocumented people as citizens, signaling his intent to essentially ignore the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in a move that is all but certain to invite a legal challenge.

His order directed federal agencies not to issue citizenship documents to such children, starting in 30 days.

It flew in the face of the guarantee, rooted in common law and enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years, that anyone born in the United States is automatically an American citizen.

In the executive order, Mr. Trump said he would interpret the 14th Amendment differently than had been done in the past, arguing that it “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

The order would mean that citizenship would not be extended to a child whose mother and father are not authorized to be in the United States at the time of birth.

Mr. Trump has long said that conferring American citizenship on the children of undocumented immigrants was unacceptable to him. But because birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, such an order would face major legal challenges. Any change to the Constitution requires supermajority votes in Congress, and then ratification by three-quarters of the states. . . .

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, says: “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.”. . .

By directing federal agencies to deny the children of undocumented immigrants citizenship-affirming documents like Social Security cards and passports, the Trump administration is effectively ordering them to be cutting them off from government services like public schools, health care, nutrition and housing benefits. The policy — acting as if the 14th Amendment did not apply to those people — is very likely to draw a legal challenge as well.

The chart above show that most citizens oppose Trump denying birthright citizenship. It is the CBS News / YouGov Poll -- done between January 15th and 17th of a nationwide sample of 2,174 adults, with a 2.5 point margin of error.