Last week, President Donald J. Trump unveiled his latest attempt to reduce future illegal immigration. Since 1982, the law of the land has been that children born in the United States are naturalized citizens, regardless of the status of their parents. This law is based on some loose interpretations of the 14th Amendment, which does state that “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.”
Now this may sound like the constitution is clear on the law. However, the 14th Amendment was written following the Civil War and was talking about the citizenship status of freed slaves. This was a time when illegal immigration was not something about which the US Government really worried.
This concept, known as “birthright citizenship,” is not to be confused with Israel’s birthright citizenship law. Bottom line, in America, if someone is born within the borders of the United States, he or she is considered to be a citizen of the country. In one of his dozens of executive orders, President Trump ordered the end of birthright citizenship.
Trump’s thinking, as well as the thinking of the author of the executive order, Stephen Miller, is that ending the ability of anyone to just become a citizen of the United States by dint of being born here will have two deterrents to illegal immigration. Firstly, it will do the obvious – not have additional people have citizenship simply because they were born here. Secondly, it will deter people from coming here and having a child who will automatically have citizenship, making it more difficult to deport, as well as no longer having these children being a reason to come in the first place.
However, a federal judge has already struck this down, and the chances of the Supreme Court upholding the federal judge’s ruling is pretty high. But, if President Trump is serious about ending birthright citizenship, I have an idea to offer him. There is one area of citizenship that the Democrats have been after since the Obama administration (and probably longer, but I was not paying attention before then).
The Dreamers.
You may remember that, back in 2012, President Obama issued an executive order that temporarily allowed childhood arrivals to be barred from deportation. That order is known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and is still in effect, having been renewed most recently in 2021 by President Biden.
However, the real goal of the Dreamers is citizenship, and that is the carrot that the Republicans should dangle in front of the Democrats. They should be willing to grant citizenship to dreamers provided they haven’t committed a felony; but, in return, Republicans should demand a constitutional amendment to clarify that the children of those who enter the country illegally are not to be counted as citizens regardless of where they are born.
Making this offer to Democrats puts them in a tough bind. They will receive tremendous pressure from the Dreamers and their supporters to take the deal. But Democrats would not be able to take this deal, because they are going to calculate that they will eventually have more people who support them if they don’t take the deal, as, over time, more of these babies born in the United States to illegal immigrants would back them. Making this offer will expose the Democrats for what they really are – pro-illegal immigration.
If you are a Democrat reading this, you need not worry, because Republicans, and specifically the aforementioned Stephen Miller, would never offer this. Miller himself has been outspoken against all forms of illegal immigration since he was in high school. He, and by extension, President Trump, would never allow that offer to be made, despite this only costing 3.5 million citizens, and the reward is a tremendous stoppage of illegal immigration and future additional citizenship by birthright. It’s just that it doesn’t seem that the ending of birthright citizenship is actually what Trump and Miller are after. They seem to simply try to throw a million executive orders out there, while their political opponents will only have enough energy and bandwidth to go after the most egregious, thus allowing the rest of the executive orders through.
So, to Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller, I know you obviously pick up the Queens Jewish Link on a regular basis. So, when you finish your Shabbos meals and pull out your copy this week, give this idea a thought. It may be borderline brilliant.
Izzo Zwiren works in healthcare administration, constantly concerning himself with the state of healthcare politics. The topic of healthcare has led Izzo to become passionate about a variety of political issues affecting our country today. Aside from politics, Izzo is a fan of trivia, stand-up comedy, and the New York Giants. Izzo lives on Long Island with his wife and two adorable, hilarious daughters.
