Trump smacks Ryan for questioning his birthright citizenship plan

White House

The president also claimed that the Supreme Court will settle the treatment of babies of undocumented immigrants.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday shot back at House Speaker Paul Ryan for criticizing his proposal to upend birthright citizenship, saying Ryan should be paying attention to the midterm elections instead.

“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

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Ryan had told Kentucky talk radio station WVLK on Tuesday that the president “obviously cannot do that,” joining a bevy of constitutional scholars who challenged Trump on using an executive order to eliminate birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil. Ryan is not running for reelection in this year’s midterms.

The president’s Wednesday afternoon tweet followed a series of tweets earlier in the day claiming that the provision granting birthright citizenship to the children of foreign citizens does not apply to the children of undocumented immigrants because citizenship can only be granted to subjects of U.S. jurisdiction.

“So-called Birthright Citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other. It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Many legal scholars agree…..” Trump wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning.

In a follow-up tweet, Trump said the matter would be taken to the Supreme Court.

“….Harry Reid was right in 1993, before he and the Democrats went insane and started with the Open Borders (which brings massive Crime) “stuff.” Don’t forget the nasty term Anchor Babies. I will keep our Country safe. This case will be settled by the United States Supreme Court!” he wrote in the follow-up.

Trump was referencing a comment retired Sen. Harry Reid made in 1993 proposing to eliminate birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants’ children. Reid said at the time “no sane country” would offer a “reward for being an illegal immigrant.” Reid disavowed the comment and said Wednesday his position then was a mistake, and that Trump was “profoundly wrong” in his remarks.

The term “anchor babies” refers to the idea undocumented immigrants give birth to children in the United States with the goal of acquiring U.S. citizenship for the rest of the family. The term is viewed by immigrants rights activists as offensive.

Trump said in an Axios interview released Tuesday that he disapproved of granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants’ children who were born on U.S. soil. He erroneously said no other country allows that kind of birthright citizenship, though more than 30 do, and his claims were quickly met with deep skepticism from constitutional scholars and his own party.

Trump said he plans to sign an executive order to eliminate the provision for undocumented immigrants, though several constitutional scholars said doing so would not withstand legal challenges. But the Trump administration has expressed confidence that the executive order would eventually make its way to the Supreme Court.

The question of citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to foreign parents has already come before the Supreme Court in United States vs. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, which resulted in a ruling that all children born in the U.S. are eligible to claim citizenship.

The 14th Amendment states: “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.”

The line “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” often caters to the children of diplomats who do not receive automatic citizenship if they are born in the U.S. But the president insinuated on Twitter Wednesday that the exception extended to undocumented immigrants because they were not legally under U.S. jurisdiction.

Though crossing the border without proper documentation and overstaying visas are crimes, undocumented immigrants are still subject to U.S. laws and law enforcement once in the country.