Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
Will Donald Trump carry out his machiavellian anti-immigrant promises? Last Sunday, on NBC’s Meet the Press, he reiterated that mass deportations are a fact, starting with “criminals,” and that he would abolish U.S. citizenship by birth. But he also affirmed that he wants to negotiate a legislative solution for Dreamers with the Democrats, saying that “in many cases they’ve become successful. They have great jobs.”
But let’s analyze various points. In the first place, it’s Republicans who have been standing in the way of Dreamers’ legalization for more than two decades, not the Democrats. It was Trump, during his first administration, who wanted to put an end to DACA, the executive order signed by Barack Obama in 2012 that gives them work permits and protects them from deportation.
So what provoked his comments about Dreamers? Could it be that it was explained to him who these young people are, the essential jobs they carry out, and the millions of dollars they contribute to the treasury? A 2023 report from FWD.US found that, since 2012, the first group of DACA beneficiaries have increased their annual incomes by a factor of seven, and have contributed $108 billion to the economy, as well as $33 billion in combined taxes.
To this day, the position of Trump and his team is that all undocumented people are at risk of deportation. Or is it that Trump wants to soften the blow of mass deportations with a promise to legalize Dreamers?
Sounds too magnanimous coming from Trump, who also lies constantly. With Trump, like St. Thomas, seeing is believing.
And in the same interview, cruelty and cynicism stood out. For example, when he was asked about mass deportations and their effect on families of mixed immigration status, Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” That includes, of course, citizen and permanent resident relatives of the undocumented people who will be deported.
In other words, Trump confirmed that mass deportations are not limited to “criminals,” and would also include citizens or residents who self-deport along with their relatives.
He also promised to end birthright citizenship, guaranteed in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, ratified 156 years ago, in 1868, and which establishes that “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 amendment was approved at the end of the Civil War to clarify the citizenship of recently-liberated slaves born in the United States.
Trump and his team argue that people born in the United States to undocumented parents should not obtain automatic citizenship. Trump thinks that he can change it by decree, but experts and academics agree that the way to do so is through a constitutional amendment that requires the vote of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, and then has to be ratified by three-fourths of the state legislatures. Trump could issue an order, but it’s anticipated that it would be immediately challenged in the courts for being unconstitutional.
Of course, the Trump administration could employ mechanisms to make it harder for people born in the United States to undocumented parents to obtain documents like Social Security cards or passports, although that would also be challenged in court.
The last time that the Supreme Court spoke about the 14th Amendment was in 1898 in the case Wong Kim Ark vs. United States; a young man, born in California to Chinese immigrant parents, who was denied entry into the country after a visit abroad. The highest court ruled in favor of Ark, ratifying that it didn’t matter who his parents were, someone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen.
Ark’s parents were documented immigrants. There has not been a pronouncement about undocumented immigrant parents. It is understood that children born in the United States are U.S. citizens regardless of whether their parents have documents, or if they are on a tourist or student visa, for example.
Although consensus exists that amending the Constitution to deny birthright citizenship is nearly impossible, it’s also recognized that if the case reaches the Supreme Court, there is a conservative majority substantially aligned with Trump. It would no longer be so far-fetched that Trump’s extremist proposals could be held up by the highest court.
And Trump’s crusade to reformulate who is a U.S. citizen doesn’t even respect citizens.
The original Spanish version is here.
