Land of lawyers and illegals: why Republicans want to abolish U.S. birthright citizenship

Donald Trump has once again made a resonant statement. The President-elect of the United States believes that the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on American soil, should be revised. Discussions on this topic have been going on for quite a long time, but now before the start of the implementation of an unprecedented in the history of the country's policy against illegal immigrants, the Republicans have decided to raise this topic to the surface of public debate. Details - in the material "Izvestia".

Aunt Rose is here

President Trump plans to sign an executive order that will deprive the right to citizenship of children of non-citizens and illegal immigrants born on US territory. He announced this in an interview on the program "Axios on HBO". He called the current legislative norms, which are, in fact, a loose interpretation of the first clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, "ridiculous" and pointed out that they encourage "generic", or as Republicans call it, "chain" migration.

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These kinds of ideas have been broadcast by Republicans for quite some time. They fit seamlessly into the theory of "demographic replacement," according to which Democratic administrations in the White House have deliberately made state borders easily permeable. The goal of this project, according to conservatives, is to gradually "dilute" Republican states with illegals, and then, through various privileges and relaxations of election laws, to integrate them and turn them into an element of the Democratic electorate.

"Chain migration" looks as follows. An illegal immigrant enters the United States and after some time obtains citizenship. After that he brings his relatives into the country and legalizes them. In another variant, the ID of a US citizen is obtained by his children born on the territory of the USA.

Photo: Global Look Press/Mohammed Talatene

By the way, the "birth tourism", which is still very popular in the countries of the former USSR, operated according to the same scheme all this time. Thousands of citizens of the former Soviet republics, including many stars of local show business, used the option of giving birth in the United States in order to obtain citizenship. However, they pay for the documents of their children faithfully. The cost of the service varies depending on the state and the level of medical services from $15 to $50 thousand.

At a time when illegal migration has become a national disaster, Trump proposes to use all methods of solving the problem. Revising a provision of the Constitution is one of them and, apparently, not yet the most radical.

Jus soli

The aforementioned Clause No. 1 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states, "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." The current interpretation puts everyone into this category, including illegal immigrants.

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The Democratic opposition immediately started talking about undermining the foundations of the American state. Actually, the 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, i.e. right after the Civil War, was designed to equalize the rights of all those who were born in the United States, regardless of their origin. According to the Democrats' logic, if Trump gets his way, society will again be divided into different kinds of people. In addition, they guarantee that Trumpist proposals will never get legislative approval under any circumstances.

There are two mechanisms for amending the U.S. Constitution. The first is the Constitutional Convention, when Congress calls delegates from each state to make a decision. An amendment to the Basic Law is approved by three-fourths of the states. This mechanism, although it formally exists, like many things in American jurisprudence, is rather a museum relic. After all, the only case of its application is in 1787, when the U.S. Constitution itself was approved in Philadelphia.

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The second mechanism is the adoption of an amendment directly by Congress. But here the Republicans will almost certainly not have the opportunity to make a proposal. After all, that would require a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. But even if it does happen, it next goes to the states. Of their 50 votes, a minimum of 38 is needed, which in the current climate looks even less realizable.

Over 11,000 constitutional amendments have been proposed in the history of the United States, but only 27 of them have been ratified.

Trick with letters

Trump's chances are critically small, but it is premature to call his proposals populism. American law is a separate universe, and the president-elect's supporters know this as well as anyone.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump

Photo: REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Trump proposes not to change the Constitution, but to challenge the interpretation of its provisions. And here an abyss of diverse options opens up before American lawmakers. Most of them end up being considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, where the conservatives have an advantage, albeit nominal. Sergei Mikhailov, a leading RISI expert, emphasizes that this is the scenario that the Republicans will try to put into practice.

- The topic is being discussed quite actively in the context of election campaigns, and there is almost a consensus in the current Republican Party. The goal is to stop "chain migration". It is quite possible that the Supreme Court option will be chosen. For example, a lawsuit will be filed, probably by the President. Therefore, we are not talking about a new amendment to the Constitution. We are talking about a new interpretation of the existing provision," the expert points out.

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However, the context is much more important in this story. Trump's proposal is one of the elements of the overall strategy to combat illegal migration. Taking into account what measures he is going to implement, the process in the Supreme Court no longer looks neither sensational nor populist, but at the same time it is not of paramount importance, emphasizes Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the United States and Canada.

- "Chain migration" is there, and it is actively used - there is no secret about it. Another issue is that as soon as the Republicans start implementing their ideas, they will be hit with lawsuits from the Democrats. Another crucial point is the methodology that the Republicans will choose. This is about mass deportation. It's no coincidence that Trump is going to use the army and the National Guard for this, and there has never been anything on this scale in American history. How it will be implemented is the big question. By the way, Democratic states are actively accumulating illegals and issuing them documents that will allow them to legalize in the future. Their task is to disavow the idea of deportation, legally and practically, to the accompaniment of talk about the violation of basic American freedoms. All this is very similar to the situation in 1861 (the year of the beginning of the Civil War in the U.S. - Ed.) and has a real chance of turning into a hybrid civil war," the expert states.