Trump’s birthright citizenship stunt diminishes America’s greatness

A closed-door country goes against a key factor in US success. (AP)
A closed-door country goes against a key factor in US success. (AP)

Summary

  • The US has long stood out for its generosity of spirit in welcoming people from elsewhere looking for liberty and opportunities. President Donald Trump’s immigration policy harms the very cause he claims to be pursuing—and is being legally challenged for good reason.

On 20 January, as US President Donald Trump attended an inaugural service at Washington National Cathedral, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde pleaded with him. 

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now," she said. The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals, Budde said, but pay taxes and are good neighbours. 

Trump scarcely looked at her. 

He has made no secret of his desire to restrict entry to the US and won both the Electoral College and the popular vote. The flurry of executive orders he signed aim to do just that. 

Also Read: Mint Quick Edit | Trump’s push for small government looks like a dice roll

Among the most chilling: an attempt to override the 14th Amendment, limit birthright citizenship, and create a subclass of children who were born here, but who, through a cruel trick of timing, are not Americans. 

This takes effect in less than a month. Babies born in the US after that to undocumented parents would, Trump said, no longer be recognized by the federal government as US citizens.

Altering birthright citizenship has been high on Trump’s agenda. Nevertheless, it is shocking to see the scope. 

The order not only includes undocumented immigrants, but also includes legal immigrants whose status is considered temporary. Hundreds of thousands who entered the US legally on student visas, the H-1B programme for skilled foreign workers or through refugee schemes such as Temporary Protected Status, would be subject to the same restrictions. 

No permanent status, no American citizen children.

Yes, the H-1B programme needs an overhaul. So do other temporary programmes. 

But this punitive approach is hardly the way. 

Also Read: America’s H-1B visa is vital to US interests—and suits India too

Ultimately, of course, this will be a matter for the Supreme Court. Trump lacks the power to alter the 14th Amendment, which explicitly states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

Intended to guarantee citizenship for newly freed slaves, the amendment has long been interpreted as establishing birthright citizenship. 

That principle was affirmed in US vs Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 case of a Chinese American man born in San Francisco, but to Chinese citizens. The precedent set in that ruling has stood for well over a century.

Perhaps Trump thinks there is no way a Supreme Court with a conservative 6-3 majority—three of whom he appointed— would defy him on one of his obsessions. 

Maybe he thinks the longstanding precedent will matter little to the court that overturned Roe vs Wade in 2022, robbing women of reproductive rights guaranteed by the Constitution for almost 50 years. 

Or perhaps he expects to fail, as many legal scholars suspect, but still feels the gambit gives him a talking point and another way to blame opponents for thwarting him.

Twenty-two Democratic-led states are filing lawsuits and injunctions will be sought. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed its own lawsuit.

The birthright citizenship ploy is just one part of Trump’s frontal assault on immigration. 

He has suspended the entire US Refugee Resettlement Program, saying that Biden admitted far too many refugees. 

Another executive order requires a plan that assigns the Defense Department’s US Northern Command to seal the borders. 

Other actions cancelled thousands of appointments with asylum seekers.

Although Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said before Trump took office that the administration would prioritize the removal of criminals, Trump specifically broadened enforcement beyond that narrow charge and removed earlier guidelines against conducting raids in schools, hospitals, churches, shelters and more. 

Trump clearly intends to wage a campaign of ‘shock and awe’ against immigrants, with the brutality of it sending a message to “keep out."

Also Read: US President-elect Trump’s crackdown on immigration is likely to be highly disruptive

Trump appears not to believe that immigrants are part of what makes America exceptional. Each wave of immigration has made its contributions, creating a mosaic of cultures that enliven this nation and expose us to new ways and new thinking. 

Have there been rough spots? Yes. Do we need immigration reforms? Undoubtedly. Many Americans are frustrated with levels that seem to be rising beyond this nation’s capacity to adapt. But this is not the humane reform many Americans seek.

I am a daughter of naturalized immigrants and my father believed to his last day that this was the greatest country in the world and that his greatest gift to me was my US citizenship. 

It saddens me to think that Trump’s America may become a place that turns its back on what makes the US truly great: its generous and welcoming spirit, refreshed by the sweat and toil of newcomers seeking freedom. ©Bloomberg

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