U.S. President Donald Trump has defended his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for what he calls “gate crashers.”
Trump argued that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship guarantee was meant for formerly enslaved people, not undocumented immigrants.
“The 14th Amendment Right of American Citizenship never had anything to do with modern-day ‘gate crashers’—illegal immigrants who break the law by being in our country. It had everything to do with giving citizenship to former slaves,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He continued: “Our Founding Fathers are ‘spinning in their graves’ at the idea that our country can be taken away from us. No nation in the world has anything like this. Our lawyers and judges have to be tough and protect America!”
On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” It directed federal agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents to U.S.-born children of undocumented mothers or mothers on temporary visas if the father is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
The order has sparked a wave of lawsuits, with at least four federal courts halting its enforcement while legal challenges proceed.
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In one lawsuit filed in federal court in Seattle by four state attorneys general, the judge expressed strong doubts about Trump’s authority to revoke birthright citizenship.
“I have been on the bench for over four decades,” said Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee. “I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”
Meanwhile, the 14th Amendment states: “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.”
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