Slamming Trump, DeSantis Promises to Overturn Birthright Citizenship for Illegal Aliens

In a CNN town hall on Thursday night, Ron DeSantis promised the voters of Iowa that his administration would limit the scope of birthright citizenship to prevent the children of illegal aliens from qualifying as U.S. citizens simply because they were born on American soil.

“If you come to this country illegally and then have a child, that somehow that’s birthright citizenship — I don’t think that’s what the 14th Amendment was meant to do. I think it was meant to overturn Dred Scott v. Sanford and to ensure that for African Americans — that there was no doubt that they were Americans.”

Writing for National Review in 2018, when the Trump administration was mulling such an executive order, Robert VerBruggen combed through the debate and concluded the following:

The argument against birthright citizenship certainly has a long history, as can be seen in these legal opinions released within decades of the 14th Amendment’s enactment. But as I said at the outset, I don’t quite find it convincing, given the more direct evidence from the text and more immediate historical context — though it must be conceded that we have no idea what the framers of the 14th Amendment would have thought about illegal immigrants in particular, because illegal immigrants simply didn’t exist back then.

To defend an executive order before the Supreme Court, however, the Trump administration would need to convince all five originalist judges that “subject to the jurisdiction” must be read in a way that’s somewhat quirky to modern ears, relies on a highly specific reading of the historical evidence, and overturns more than a century’s worth of standard practice. That’s a longshot.

Birthright citizenship is a nutty policy. But if I had to bet, I’d say it’s one we’re stuck with.