DENVER – As President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his second administration, immigration attorneys and policy experts are preparing for him to make good on a years-long campaign promise to end birthright citizenship.
“Birthright citizenship is pretty simple. It's that if you were born here in the U.S., by act of law, you're automatically a U.S. citizen. And that's not the case in other countries. In other countries, if you're unlawfully present and you have a child born in another country, it's not necessarily the case that they become a citizen. So, it's something that we've had here for a very long time that he's proposing to get rid of right away,” said Ernesto Walsh, an immigration attorney with the Abogado Ernest Law Group.
Trump began publicly discussing the plan to end birthright citizenship during his first presidential term.
“You walk over the border, have a baby, congratulations the baby is now a U.S. citizen. It's frankly ridiculous,” Trump said during a 2019 ABC News interview.
Walsh said ending the 14th Amendment right would have a big impact.
“It would have a tremendous impact on the individuals that are here through no fault of their own. You know, for the children that are born here that need to start their life, need to have an opportunity to have the same access that everyone else has, it certainly wasn't their fault that their parents were here,” Walsh said.
Walsh said Trump could be successful in ending birthright citizenship. However, the move will likely face several legal challenges.
“Absolutely, without question. It'll be challenged. And now, at the end of the day, whether it'll be something that they'll be allowed to remove or not, it's more likely that they will be able to pull this benefit,” Walsh said.
Walsh said it likely wouldn't be applied retroactively, meaning no one born in the U.S. would lose citizenship. From mass deportations to birthright citizenship, most of Trump's immigration proposals will take time to implement if they pass legal hurdles.
“It's important to understand that the courts are severely backlogged. And so with even the most aggressive spirit that President Trump may have, it still logistically takes time in order to be able to do things right now. The average deportation removal case in Colorado takes four to six years to terminate from beginning to end,” Walsh said.
Walsh said the immigration system is overloaded, and more prosecutors, judges, and physical courtrooms will be needed to carry out Trump’s immigration plans faster than other administrations.
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