Former US president, Donald Trump has vowed to remove birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants on his first day in office if he is re-elected president.
The policy will include Nigerians and nationals of other countries.
He said that “As part of my plan to secure the border, on day one of my new term in office I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” he said in his latest policy video.
Reuters reports that the announcement came on the 125th anniversary of the Supreme Court case that established the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.
He previously floated the idea in 2018 when he was president.
“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,“ Trump told Axios. “You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they’re saying I can do it just with an executive order.”
According to The Hill, most legal experts agree that Trump does not have the authority to do so because the 14 Amendment grants citizenship to those “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
A majority of countries in the Americas have full birthright citizenship as do several nations in Western Europe.
Trump said the prospect of citizenship for the children of illegal aliens and other benefits was acting as a ‘magnet‘
“Even though these millions of illegal border crossers have entered the country unlawfully, all of their future children will become automatic US citizens,” he said.
“They’ll be eligible for welfare, taxpayer funded health care, the right to vote, chain migration and countless other government benefits, many of which will also profit the illegal alien parents.
“This policy is a reward for breaking the laws of the United States and is obviously a magnet helping draw the flood of illegals across our borders.”
He said the ‘illegal foreign invasion’ was caused by President Joe Biden.
And he promised that his executive order would ban ‘birth tourism,’ where a pregnant mother gives birth within the U.S. after entering legally with a visa, before leaving.
His plan would require at least one parent to be either a U.S. citizen or a legal resident.