Former President Trump Tuesday vowed to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants who are born in the U.S. if he wins reelection next year.
Although anyone born in the U.S. is guaranteed citizenship by the 14th Amendment, Trump declared he would end birthright citizenship as a priority if he wins a second term in the White House.
“As part of my plan to Secure the Border, on day one of my new term in office — I will sign an Executive Order ending automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
Trump did not explain how he would get around the constitutional hurdle to scrapping birthright citizenship or why he failed to do so during his first four years in office.
He abandoned a plan to do the same thing in his first term.
Trump holds a wide lead in Republican primary polls over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and several lesser challengers.
Still, he is seeking to shore up his right flank on a string of hot button issues like immigration, abortion and the so-called “war on woke.”
On immigration, some rivals are calling out Trump for failing to build a wall along the southern border and fulfill his outlandish promise to make Mexico pay for it.
Right-wing opponents of immigration say the promise of birthright citizenship for future children is a powerful draw for undocumented immigrants to make the perilous journey to the U.S.
But there is no obvious way to counter the plain language of the 14th Amendment which says: “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”