On Sunday, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a sycophant to President-elect Donald Trump, praised Trump’s push to finish birthright citizenship.
“We are one of a handful of countries in the world that allows birthright citizenship,” Graham stated in his submit. “If you’re born in the United States, you’re automatically an American citizen. This and birth tourism from developed countries like China have become one of the biggest magnets for illegal immigration.”
“I have introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship, and I’m now working on a constitutional amendment to put an end to this practice once and for all,” Graham added.
To finish birthright citizenship would imply amending the U.S. Structure, whose 14th Modification ensures citizenship to “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States.” For a brand new constitutional modification to take impact, it must be handed by a two-thirds majority vote in every chamber of Congress in addition to ratified by 38 of fifty state legislatures.
Graham’s feedback adopted Trump’s Sunday look on NBC Information’ “Meet the Press,” the place he declared he would transfer to finish birthright citizenship.
“We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous,” Trump stated within the interview. “We’re the only country that has it, you know.”
Trump’s declare that America is the one nation with birthright citizenship is fake. Greater than 30 nations have it, based on a 2018 report by the Library of Congress. Nonetheless, that mattered little to Graham, who was targeted on the way it “cheapens” American citizenship.
“I believe legal immigration is important to our economy and future,” Graham continued. “However, birthright citizenship and birth tourism … cheapen American citizenship.”
He concluded along with his typical aptitude: “I look forward to working with President Trump to go beyond his executive order and end this disastrous policy once and for all.”
Such a transfer would straight problem the landmark 1868 Supreme Courtroom determination in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which upheld the 14th Modification’s assure of full citizenship to anybody born on U.S. soil, no matter their guardian’s immigration or citizenship standing.
Graham has lengthy advocated for ending birthright citizenship. In 2018, throughout Trump’s first time period, he stated, “Lastly, a president keen to tackle this absurd coverage of birthright citizenship. And in a sequence of posts railing towards the constitutionally protected proper, he declared his plans to introduce laws within the Senate.
This previous September, he did simply that.
“This legislation will change the laws that exist today,” he stated in a press convention saying his invoice, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2024. “There’s an 1898 Supreme Court ruling that basically suggested that if you’re born in America, you’re automatically a citizen. I do not believe that is a sound policy to have, and the Supreme Court will revisit this if challenged.”
This push to finish birthright citizenship comes on the heels of a 2020 Trump administration coverage that sought to curb “birth tourism”—a purported follow the place overseas nationals journey to the U.S. to provide delivery, hoping their little one shall be granted American citizenship. Via the State Division, the Trump administration restricted entry to momentary customer visas for overseas nationals hoping to provide delivery on American soil, although the administration didn’t present a transparent clarification of the way it would possibly know the intentions of pregnant vacationers. (It additionally exempted 39 nations, most in Europe, from the rule.)
Graham’s relationship with Trump has been, to place it mildly, a rollercoaster.
In 2015, amid the Republican presidential major, Graham known as Trump a “jackass,” and Trump known as Graham an “idiot.”
Finally, Graham and Trump developed a friendship over their shared disdain for the Reasonably priced Care Act. Since Trump’s first time period, Graham has usually aligned himself with Trump, from calling Trump’s impeachment hearings a witch hunt, to publicly defending Trump within the media.
Nonetheless, earlier this yr, the connection hit a tough patch after Trump reportedly refused to again a federal abortion ban, resulting in some reported rigidity between the 2. But Graham has remained a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration coverage—one of many agendas that swayed American voters to catapult him again into the White Home.
By difficult the 14th Modification, Graham and Trump should not simply concentrating on immigration coverage—they’re aiming to rewrite what it means to be an American.
