Today President Trump said he is “seriously” considering issuing an executive order to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants when speaking to reporters outside the White House.
Trump said it is “frankly ridiculous” that the United States affords citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants. “We’re looking at that very seriously, birthright citizenship, where you have a baby on our land, you walk over the border, have a baby – congratulations, the baby is now a U.S. citizen” Trump exclaimed.
Last year Trump told Axios “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.”
The issue of birthright citizenship has been a controversial issue for decades. Hundreds of thousands of women, particularly from countries in the Middle East and Mexico, take advantage of the birthright citizenship policy. These women come into the United States and obtain the minimal amount of legally required care under United States doctors so their children can be born here and have dual citizenship. In most cases the families return to their country of origin immediately following birth.
Many investigations have been done showing women living in Mexico are receiving welfare checks from the United States because they had their “anchor babies” across the border and use a fake address in the U.S. to have their checks sent to. Friends or family members then get the money back to the single mothers who have returned to Mexico. Forbes released an article in 2016 citing the horrendous cost the policy has on our citizens.
