'Blatantly unconstitutional': Ex-Reagan speechwriter demolishes Trump’s arguments on key issue

28 January

After President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for the end of birthright citizenship in the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wasted no time filing a lawsuit. And the attorneys general of at least 22 states filed lawsuits as well.

The ACLU is slamming Trump's executive order as flat-out unconstitutional, emphasizing that birthright citizenship is protected by the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment. Federal District Court Judge John C. Coughenour shared their disdain for the order, which he temporarily blocked.

Coughenour declared, "This is a blatantly unconstitutional order…. It just boggles my mind."

Opposition to Trump's birthright citizenship order is coming from both the left and the right.

In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on January 28, veteran columnist Mona Charen argues that birthright citizenship is fundamental to the United States' identity.

"The assault on birthright citizenship is more than an overzealous assault on immigration, it is part of Trump's ongoing attempt to limit membership in the American family," Charen warns. "He rose to political prominence by calling the first Black president's citizenship into question, bullied Black lawmakers with the taunt that they should go back to where they came from, and lamented that we are not attracting more immigrants from places like Norway."

The Never Trump conservative adds, "Not subtle…. If we were to dispense with birthright citizenship, we would erode the sense of equality that Americans enjoy and replace it with tiers."

Trump claimed that birthright citizenship is unique to the United States, saying, "We are the only country in the world that does this with the birthright, as you know, and it's just absolutely ridiculous."

But Charen, who worked in the Reagan White House during the 1980s and was a speechwriter for First Lady Nancy Reagan, tears that claim apart in her article.

"Donald Trump's executive order theoretically ending birthright citizenship grandly proclaims its purpose as 'Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,'" Charen writes. "As we've come to expect from this administration, the proposed change to American law would do the exact opposite…. But, no, we don’t know very well that the United States is the only country in the world that grants unconditional birthright citizenship. Not even close."

Charen continues, "According to a 2018 report by the Library of Congress, practically the entire Western Hemisphere does the same, including Canada and Mexico. Pakistan too gives citizenship to every child born within its borders, and Germany and the UK have something close — extending it to babies with one citizen or permanent resident parent."

Mona Charen's full article for The Bulwark is available at this link.

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