Donald and Melania Trump at the National Prayer Service in the Washington National Cathedral, January 21, 2025 (Evan Vucci/AP)
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I joined the Irish Independent’s Indo Daily on Wednesday to assess the first 48 hours of Donald Trump’s destructive second term in the White House.
Listen from 3:46:
I chat with host Kevin Doyle about Trump’s declaration of a national emergency so he can use the US military in the possible deportation of migrants and asylum seekers.
Trump is threatening to deport every undocumented immigrant but that would cost many, many billions of dollars.
So the executive orders set up the foundation for when they want to move. It’s keeping every migrant and asylum seeker in a culture of fear, “You could be next.”
To do that, you have to put some infrastructure down.
I evaluate Trump’s threat to remove birthright citizenship, explaining the Constitutional, legal, and cultural barriers to that.
You grow up in the US with the idea of how lucky you are to be an American, and that has been extended since the early days of the Republic to those lucky enough to be born on American soil.
Trump is attacking that. We’ll see how far he gets culturally, but he also has a long legal road.
I look at Trump’s assault on diversity, equity, and inclusion, asking what that means for an Irish culture which has embraced DEI.
Let’s cut through the rhetoric.
Donald Trump is not ending the “culture war” by attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion.
To be diverse, to welcome women and racial and ethnic minorities who have had opportunities in the past — welcoming this is not a “culture war”. That’s trying to enhance your culture.
The person waging the culture war here is Donald Trump.
And I consider with respect to other orders from Trump’s purges of his “enemies” to his use of pardons to sweep away the Capitol Attack and his attempted coup in January 2021, “Can anyone stop Donald Trump?”
[Editor’s Note: The commenter is wrong, both on political and legal grounds.
The Trump executive order applies to *all* immigrants and asylum seekers, not just the undocumented.
The legal principle of the 14th Amendment applying to children of undocumented immigrants was established by the Supreme Court in the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark. There has been no significant legal challenge to that precedent in more than 126 years.
The exception of birthright citizenship regarding those who are born to diplomats is because those diplomats are not subject to US jurisdiction.
There is no evidence of birthright citizenship leading to “queue jumping” (or of parents choosing to have their babies on planes flying in US airspace).]
“You grow up in the US with the idea of how lucky you are to be an American, and that has been extended since the early days of the Republic to those lucky enough to be born on American soil.”
Here is the clause in the fourteenth amendment: https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-1-2/ALDE_00000812/
“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.”
Children born to parents illegally resident in the United States are not subject U.S jurisdiction. Their presence is unauthorised. Likewise, children born to diplomats based in the United States do not fall under the aforementioned jurisdiction. They are not given citizenship currently.
Trump is right, the editor is wrong. Giving citizenship to the children of illegal migrants only incentivizes breaking U.S law and allows for more queue jumping with respect to legal migrants. He is also going after babies born whilst in transit. Currently, those born simply flying over U.S airspace can claim citizenship: https://www.americansabroad.org/i_was_born_on_an_airplane_while_it_was_flying_over_the_usa_do_i_have_a_claim_to_us_citizenship
[Editor’s Note: The US Government has jurisdiction over any person on its territory, with exceptions such as foreign diplomats.
Harvard Law School Professor Gerald Neuman: “With respect to undocumented workers, they are people who come to the United States to work, to participate in our economy, to live in our society, to live safely in our territory. They are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Further, the thing that makes the immigration laws so enforceable against them is that they are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”
https://hls.harvard.edu/today/can-birthright-citizenship-be-changed/#:~:text=Then%2C%20the%20Supreme%20Court%20confirmed,the%20State%20wherein%20they%20reside.%E2%80%9D]
How do undocumented aliens, and their children, fall under U.S jurisdiction?