Tipsheet

Republicans Signal Support to End Birthright Citizenship For Children of Illegal Aliens

A new tactic of combating President Joe Biden's damaging open border policies is being introduced by several of the 2024 GOP presidential candidates by supporting the idea of ending birthright citizenship for illegal aliens. 

The topic of conversation has been applied several times, with many believing that those born in the U.S. illegally should not automatically be given citizenship in America. However, under the 14th Amendment, "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."

GOP presidential Vivek Ramaswamy said ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants is necessary to get the U.S. back on track. 

"I think for a period of time it's going to be necessary in this country because you have an influx of migrants across that southern border, fourteen thousand-plus a day by some estimates crossing that southern border. That is not a rule of law; that is the abandonment of the rule of law," he said on CNN.

Former President Trump echoed a similar proposal, saying he would sign an executive order "on day one" to instruct federal agents that the "correct interpretation of the law does not grant automatic citizenship of children born in the country illegally. 

"Joe Biden has launched an illegal foreign invasion of our country, allowing a record number of illegal aliens to storm across our borders," Trump said in a video. "Even though these millions of illegal border crossers have entered the country unlawfully, all their future children will become automatic U.S. citizens."

Trump added that they would be eligible for welfare, taxpayer-funded health care, the right to vote, chain migration, and countless other government benefits—- which he says would also profit the illegal migrant parents. 

"This policy is a reward for breaking the laws of the United States and is obviously a magnet, helping draw a flood of illegals across our borders," the former president continued. 

2024 GOP presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis also backed the idea, saying a child born in the U.S. illegally was not the original idea of the 14th Amendment. 

"This idea that you can come across the border, two days later have a child, and somehow that's an American citizen— that was not the original understanding of the 14th Amendment, ad so we'll take action to force a clarification of that," DeSantis said.