Trump says to sign executive order ending US citizenship by birth

US President Donald Trump says he intends to sign an executive order that would revoke citizenship rights for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on American soil, according to excerpts of an interview released Tuesday.

“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,” Trump said in an interview for ‘Axios on HBO’ Monday. “It’s ridiculous. And it has to end.”

Trump claimed that his White House Counsel informed him that the highly controversial move, which would be sure to face legal challenges, could be authorized through a presidential order.

"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said. “You can definitely do it with an Act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order."

Citizenship by birth is guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the US constitution, which states that “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.”

Whether or not birthright citizenship is within the president’s power to change is a subject of debate among constitutional scholars.

Some conservatives have argued that the 14th Amendment was originally intended to grant citizenship only to children born in the US to lawful permanent residents, pointing to the fact that birthright citizenship was not extended children of undocumented or temporary immigrants until the 1960's.

Opponents of birthright citizenship have branded babies born in the US to non-citizens or illegal immigrants “anchor babies” and have criticized what they call “chain migration”, a practice which allows those children who receive citizenship by birthright to later sponsor their non-citizen parents for citizenship.

To date, the US Supreme Court has made no rulings on 14th Amendment cases specifically involving undocumented immigrants or those with temporary legal status, and if Trump were to sign an executive order on the matter the courts would be forced to make a ruling in inevitable legal challenges. 

Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe criticized Trump's idea of revoking birthright citizenship, tweeting that "if the 14th Amendment could be wiped out with the stroke of Trump's pen, the whole US constitution could be erased that way."

"There's no limit to that dictatorial claim over all our rights," he said.

Trump’s remarks mark another escalation in his hardline stance on immigration ahead of US midterm elections on November 6 that could see the Democrats regain some degree of power.

Trump has been campaigning intensively for weeks, frequently stoking anti-immigrant concerns among voters.

Trump in recent weeks has repeatedly hammered on the need for additional troops to tighten border security, and has made political capital on the approach of a caravan of Central American migrants towards the US-Mexico border.

"Many Gang Members and some very bad people are mixed into the Caravan heading to our Southern Border," Trump tweeted Monday, without providing evidence, doubling down on the hardline anti-immigrant rhetoric that helped fuel his 2016 election victory.

"Please go back, you will not be admitted into the United States unless you go through the legal process. This is an invasion of our Country and our Military is waiting for you!"

The Pentagon announced Monday the deployment of 5,200 active-duty troops to beef up security along the US-Mexico border in a bid to prevent the migrant caravan from illegally crossing the frontier.

In April, Trump ordered up to 4,000 National Guardsmen to head to the border as a different migrant caravan wound its way north. About 2,100 have deployed.