Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced plans Tuesday to introduce legislation to eliminate birthright citizenship following President Trump’s announcement that he plans to end it through executive order.
In a series of tweets, Graham praised President Trump’s comments in a recent interview with Axios that he believes he can end birthright citizenship and plans to do so. Sen. Graham announced that he will be introducing legislation “along the same lines” as Trump’s planned executive order.
I’ve always supported comprehensive immigration reform – and at the same time – the elimination of birthright citizenship.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 30, 2018
In addition, I plan to introduce legislation along the same lines as the proposed executive order from President @realDonaldTrump.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 30, 2018
"How ridiculous, we're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits,” Trump argued in his interview with Axios. “It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous and it has to end.”
"You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order," he claimed, adding that “it’s in the process.”
There is still an active debate among constitutional scholars about whether President Trump can change the 14th amendment which says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The American Civil Liberties Union pushed back on Trump's proposal Tuesday.
"The president cannot erase the Constitution with an executive order, and the 14th Amendment's citizenship guarantee is clear," Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, argued. "This is a transparent and blatantly unconstitutional attempt to sow division and fan the flames of anti-immigrant hatred in the days ahead of the midterms."