So, birthright citizenship has been very much in the news as of late, with President Donald Trump saying he’s planning to end birthright citizenship — the policy of conferring American citizenship on anyone born on American soil no matter what the legal status of their parents — by executive order.
Some scholars would disagree, although we’ll get to that in a minute. College students generally aren’t constitutional scholars. They’ve also got notoriously hilarious opinions on all things Donald Trump — something that would be even funnier if it didn’t make your blood boil, according to Next News.
The Daily Caller found this out when it went out to find out just what millennials thought about the policy:
“We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States … with all of those benefits,” Donald Trump told Axios in an interview late last month, announcing he planned to end the policy.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” he added.
As Teported By USA Today:
President Donald Trump’s announced intention to end “birthright citizenship” by executive order has pushed an already heated debate over immigration into a virtual inferno of election year politicking. At base, however, it is one of the longest standing debates in our Constitution: whether the 14th Amendment affords citizenship to anyone born on our soil regardless of their status. While neither side seems willing to admit it, there are good-faith arguments on both sides, and frankly this order could force the federal court to come to a final and clear resolution of the question.
The debate comes down to six poorly chosen words: “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Those words come in the middle of an otherwise clear statement that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States … are citizens of the United States.” The words have long been argued by some to mean that the amendment applies only to citizens and legal residents who are subject fully to the jurisdiction of the United States.