Opinion: Executive Order The Meaning of Citizenship Potentially Threatens Citizenship Rights, Ignites Concern

President Trump and the Conservatives are not wrong about the problem here, however this Executive Order on the Meaning of Citizenship is horribly wrong and incredibly dangerous to the Republic.

The issue at hand with immigration and millions of people here without status, and many tens of millions more citizens born to them, represents many decades of failure by both Republicans and Democrats to reform and enforce immigration law and provide a uniform easy path to citizenship, making it unduly difficult to become a citizen and far too easy to illegally come and be taken advantage of by our businesses for cheap labor.

Granting citizenship to the children of those here without legal immigration status has been a lure used to entice people to have children here to have another pathway to residency via their children.

This action today closes that pathway for those that are here without status, and those that are here on explicitly temporary status not on a pathway to citizenship.

However doing this by Executive Order is wrong. President Trump's political party controls all three branches of government, and he should use his unique position of control of all branches of government by his party, to finally get uniform immigration reform and amnesty or else the consequences could mean the end of the Republic.

Under this new interpretation of the law with this Executive Order, all that prevents millions of people who are already citizens from having the citizenship revoked and being rounded up for deportation is Section 2 Subsection B which states:

"Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order"

Look back on the pages of history and ask yourself. Do you trust any government not to one day decide that another Executive Order removing Section 2 Subsection B is needed?

Do you really want all that stands between 10 million to 30 million Americans from having their citizenship revoked, being rounded up and put in to camps and thrown out of the country, only a few words in an Executive Order?

Congress must act on this now, and at the very least codify and rubber-stamp what President Trump has done here to protect millions of our fellow American Citizens from risking losing their citizenship and their entire lives due to a generational failure of politics.

As of right now they only have a single sentence protecting them.

Executive order...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1. Purpose. The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift. The Fourteenth Amendment 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.” That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race.

But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text.

Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

Sec. 2. Policy. (a) It is the policy of the United States that no department or agency of the United States government shall issue documents recognizing United States citizenship, or accept documents issued by State, local, or other governments or authorities purporting to recognize United States citizenship, to persons: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary, and the person’s father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.

(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.

(c) Nothing in this order shall be construed to affect the entitlement of other individuals, including children of lawful permanent residents, to obtain documentation of their United States citizenship.

Sec. 3. Enforcement. (a) The Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Commissioner of Social Security shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the regulations and policies of their respective departments and agencies are consistent with this order, and that no officers, employees, or agents of their respective departments and agencies act, or forbear from acting, in any manner inconsistent with this order.

(b) The heads of all executive departments and agencies shall issue public guidance within 30 days of the date of this order regarding this order’s implementation with respect to their operations and activities.

Sec. 4. Definitions. As used in this order:

(a) “Mother” means the immediate female biological progenitor.

(b) “Father” means the immediate male biological progenitor.

Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

THE WHITE HOUSE,

January 20, 2025.

Note: Opinion expressed is that of Steven Edwards, former Libertarian Candidate for South Carolina House of Representatives and Political Analyst for AlamogordoTownNews.org 

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