Trump goes after Paul Ryan on birthright citizenship: ‘Something He Knows Nothing About’
President Trump went after House Speaker Paul Ryan Wednesday following his remarks that “you cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.”
“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!” Trump tweeted.
Ryan expressed his contrasting view to WVLK, a Kentucky radio station, after Trump said in an Axios on HBO interview that he plans to end birthright citizenship using an executive order.
Trump then doubled down on those comments in a series of tweets Wednesday morning.
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“So-called Birthright Citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other,” Trump wrote. “It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’ Many legal scholars agree.”
“Harry Reid was right in 1993, before he and the Democrats went insane and started with the Open Borders (which brings massive Crime) ‘stuff.’ Don’t forget the nasty term Anchor Babies,” Trump also said.
In his Axios interview, Trump had stated: “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States…with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”
Notably, CNN reports that “several other countries, including Canada, have a policy of birthright citizenship, according to an analysis by the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for reducing immigration.”
The question of whether it’s possible to do what Trump proposes has been raised by others as well.
According to the New York Times: “The consensus among legal scholars is that he cannot, but Mr. Trump and his allies are eager to test it in the Supreme Court.”
The publication also noted that the statement could simply be a pre-midterms ploy to energize certain voters.
