Trump's Executive Order To End Birthright Citizenship

President Trump considered a radical change to American Immigration law, and that was just ahead of the midterm elections. In an interview with Axios website, the president said that he wants to end birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed under the 14th amendment to the constitution, with an Executive Order. Recording to PolitiFact, 30 other countries offer birthright citizenship. There was elections a week away and the president was talking about this… Was that a serious policy proposal by the president or was that something he wanted to get in a big constitution to debate about for a week to keep the focus on a topic he thought would work for him politically? Many people believed it was something that he wanted to do. Politically, he wanted to keep all of the emphasis on sending troops to the boarder to guard the caravan of Central American migrants, which hit the boarder recently. 

     We have a 14th amendment which states clearly that if one is born here, on U.S. soil, then he/she is a U.S citizen. President Trump says “I don’t even need to go to Congress to change this, I can use my Executive power to do it.” When it comes to immigration, trump believes that he can and he will even though some tell him that he can’t and he shouldn’t. In August 2015, the president rolled out his immigration policy and he said that he would do that, he wanted to end birthright citizenship. This has been a part of his plan on immigration for the very beginning. If it has been a part of his plan the whole time why did he bring it one week before the elections? Has he not been able to do it? 

     House Speaker Paul Ryan said that President Donald Trump cannot end birthright citizenship with an Executive Order. They didn’t like it when Obama tried to change immigration laws via Executive actions and obviously as conservatives, they believe in the Constitution. As a conservative, Ryan believes in following the plain text of the Constitution and thinks that in this case, the 14th amendment is pretty clear. What Trump is trying to do would involve a very lengthy constitutional process.  On the other hand, Ryan agrees with the President in getting at the root issue which is unchecked illegal immigration.  

     Trump’s decision is based on politics. He knows immigration animates his base, and the harder line he takes on it, up to and including ending birthright citizenship, the better it’ll be received. It might work as a political strategy, but in terms of the chances of Trump actually ending birthright citizenship, there’s no chance. 

Trump's Executive Order To End Birthright Citizenship

On October 31, 2018, Ayoub Kajjaj talked about Trump’s aims to end the birthright citizenship with an Executive Order. In the article, Kajjaj mentioned that Trump announced that the United States of America is the only country that offers citizenship. Kajjaj didn’t point out the following, but I must disagree with Trump’s statement as there are 30 other countries that do offer citizenships such as Canada, South American and European countries. Does the President have legal authority to change this? The majority of legal and constitutional experts would say that he doesn’t have the power to do this. On the other hand, there are few conservatives who have been arguing over the past several years that there is a right that the constitution isn’t being applied correctly. The 14th amendment was meant to apply only to citizens and permanent resident of the US. It doesn’t apply to those who are on temporary visas or unauthorized. As a US citizen who’s parent is a non-citizen and got the chance to give birth in the US, I find this very interesting as the constitution is very explicit. It doesn’t give any caveats in terms of if they’re a citizen, it says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Kajjaj also mentioned that dictators come to power in democracy if one gives the green light to do so. The question is who else is demanding this? Why is this becoming an issue and why is Trump trying to do this? To “make America great again"? Kajjaj described Donald Trump as a “Subtle Fascist” as Trump is trying to implement these new decision into our community. The president should know that he can’t change the 14th amendment and what he’s doing is an attempt to divide people and incitet an issue. Also, if his order is signed, there will be legal challenges.

Military spendings and Investments

    On January 19th, the Department of Defense published a summary of the 2018 National Defense Strategy; the first National Defense Strategy published in a decade. This document determines how the Department of Defense will contribute to Trump’s National Security Strategy. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis remarked on National Defense Strategy. Mattis’s speech discussed the objectives of National Defense Strategy which include building a more lethal force by modernizing key capabilities, strengthening the alliances, attracting new partnerships to the other nations and reforming the department’s business practices.

    In an interview with Government Matters, Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center of Strategic and International Studies, said that that was one of three documents that were going to guide the Department of Defense. The unclassified summary of the strategy failed to mention how it plans to fund its objectives. Mark said that some of the highest priority investments to look up for on a budget are missile defense and modernization. Is military spending enough? Or should it be increased?

    Gallup conducted polls to determine views on Military and national Defense. When discussing whether one thinks the amount of money the government in Washington is spending for national defense and military purpose is too little, about the right amount, or too much, 34% chose for the spending to be too little, 33% chose for it to be too much, and 31% chose for it to be just about right. The people who chose that the spending to be too little encourage to increase the spending as they believe the world is becoming more dangerous daily and it is important to increase the spending on defense and cut in the areas of health, welfare and education. One can’t expect success fighting tomorrow’s conflicts with yesterday’s weapons or equipments. They must invest in modernization of key capabilities through sustained budgets and investments would focus on layered missile defense as well as restoring warfighting readiness and fielding a lethal force. People who decided the spending was too much believed the The United States was spending way too much money on the military and not enough on education. They believed spendings should increase on social welfare, health and education as it would give the country lasting benefits that would help achieve a brighter future.