Trump pushes birthright chatter in face of Constitution
This photo made available by the U.S. National Archives shows the first page of the United States Constitution. Credit: AP
President Donald Trump's pre-midterm vow to end "birthright" citizenship sounds almost as suspicious as a stranger on the phone telling you in garbled English that he's from the IRS and you must send him money.
First off, there's the U.S. Constitution, which presidents are sworn to uphold and defend.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States," says the Constitution.
Another plain tipoff comes from GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan: "As a conservative, I'm a believer in following the plain text of the Constitution and I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear."
Changing the constitution requires two-thirds of both the House and the Senate. If that happens, 75 percent of states then would need to ratify. But even a Republican-controlled Congress hasn't come together on any significant immigration reforms. And Trump isn't exactly known in Washington as a consensus-builder or even a negotiator.
The "birthright" pledge joins his phantom tax cut and sudden border control in occupying campaign-time air. Which is not to say it fails to push the national conversation in a direction Trump desires.
If his team chose to play defense instead, it might have to explain why no promised health-care changes and no infrastructure program have blossomed amid a ballooning federal deficit or why Trump seems to think the giant tax cuts approved last year won't offer enough relief to the middle class.
Trump's view of this republic's Constitution is consistent in one way. Saying he can nix the 14th Amendment on his own is as mendacious as his saying Democrats would abolish the Second Amendment.
Along the way, he threw in the usual easily checked falsehood. "We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen, " Trump told Axios.
That's false. More than 30 countries provide birthright citizenship.
Only a decade ago, Suffolk had a county executive, Steve Levy, who shot through the political sky like a comet, riding support from both major parties. Raising alarms about illegal immigration became one of his trademarks as he drew national attention, to the envy of his peers.
Levy even claimed in a broadcast interview in 2006: "Southampton Hospital, I understand, just closed its maternity ward because they can't deal with all these anchor babies" — the term for children born here whose parents live in the U.S. illegally. That proved to be fake news, but "anchor babies" remained a widespread Republican talking point.
Trump's latest infield chatter is unremarkable in one way. It rekindles themes that developed the last time a GOP president had a Republican Congress. In 2005, the conservative Washington Times reported: "House Republicans are looking closely at ending birthright citizenship and building a barrier along the entire U.S.-Mexico border as they search for solutions to illegal immigration."
The 13-year-old piece concluded: "Most lawmakers had avoided the [birthright] issue, fearing that change would require a constitutional amendment."
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
