Florida Governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has vowed to do away with birthright citizenship if he reaches the White House in 2024, a position shared by former President Donald Trump. However, it is unlikely that any of them will be successful without the help of the court.
At a press conference in the state of Texas, the Floridian said that “he would take steps to end the idea that the children of illegal immigrants have the right to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.”
Trump promised to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants via executive order while he was president, but he never followed through on that promise.
However, DeSantis did not say how, specifically, he would address that issue, simply saying it would be up to “the courts and Congress,” Insider reported.
“Hanging the award of citizenship on the future offspring of illegal immigrants is a major driver of illegal migration,” DeSantis said. “It is also inconsistent with the original understanding of the 14th Amendment, and we will force the courts and Congress to finally address this failed policy.”
“This idea that you can cross the border, two days later have a child, and somehow that is a US citizen, that was not the original understanding of the 14th Amendment, so we will take steps to force a clarification of that.” he added.
constitutionally legal
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, says that anyone born in the United States is guaranteed citizenship.
The right was legalized thirty years later by the Supreme Court which had ruled that Wong Kim Ark was legally an American citizen after being born in the United States even though his Chinese parents were barred from becoming citizens by the Chinese Exclusion Act. .
Whether the decision to end birthright citizenship comes from an executive order of the president-elect or from legislation, any measure that restricts U.S. citizenship will almost certainly be tested in the federal court system, possibly even in the Supreme Court given its previous ruling on the subject.
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