Trump has 'zero authority' to end birthright citizenship.......

President Donald Trump has "zero authority" to end birthright citizenship by himself, legal experts say.
President Donald Trump has "zero authority" to end birthright citizenship unilaterally, legal and immigration experts say, with one immigration lawyer describing his plan to do so via executive order as a "Hail Mary" meant to garner support ahead of next week's midterm elections.

In an interview with "Axios on HBO" published Tuesday morning, Trump called the concept of birthright citizenship "ridiculous" and said it "has to end."

"We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States ... with all of those benefits," Trump said, falsely — more than 30 countries have laws providing for birthright citizenship.

In the US, birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says, "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."


But Trump told Axios he didn't think he needed to go about ending the practice with a constitutional amendment.

"You can definitely do it with an act of Congress," he said. "But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order."

'The 14th Amendment is clear'
"Trump has zero authority to amend the Constitution through executive fiat, and he certainly can't do it with a tweet," Matthew Kolken, an immigration attorney in Buffalo, New York, told Business Insider on Tuesday.

Kolken added that it would be "virtually impossible" to amend the Constitution in today's political climate. Amendments require either a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of state legislatures.

"It is also exceptionally unlikely that either of Trump's nominees to the Supreme Court would rule that there is any ambiguity in the 14th Amendment, which provides for birthright citizenship," Kolken said.

Greg Siskind, an immigration lawyer based in Memphis, Tennessee, described Trump's desire to end birthright citizenship as an "extremist act" the Supreme Court is highly likely to reject.

"I think the 14th Amendment is clear in enshrining birthright citizenship in the law, and there is interpretive case law from the Supreme Court supporting this," Siskind told Business Insider. "Even with a conservative Supreme Court, I have faith the Court will reject this extremist act."

Siskind described the plan, as well as the Trump administration's decision to send thousands of troops to the US border later this week, as "Hail Mary passes designed to thwart disaster" for Republicans in next week's midterms.

"On the other hand, given the administration's history, I'm not doubting they will still pursue these measures after the election," Siskind added.

Trump's professed desire to end birthright citizenship was also decried by immigration activists and human-rights groups.

"This is a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to fan the flames of anti-immigrant hatred in the days ahead of the midterms," the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted Tuesday. "The 14th Amendment's citizenship guarantee is clear."