Washington, DC — During an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker, President-elect Donald Trump reiterated that his mass deportation agenda would ensnare U.S. citizens and attack basic principles of what it means to be an American. As NBC reported:
“Immigration was the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign, and he didn’t flinch in saying he will carry out mass deportation of those who are living in the country illegally … It’s also possible that American citizens will be caught up in the sweep and deported with family members who are here illegally, or could choose to go. Asked about families with mixed immigration status, where some are in the U.S. legally and some illegally, 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.’
…He also said he intends to eliminate birthright citizenship, the protection enshrined in the 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents. Asked about the likelihood that doing so unilaterally would face legal opposition, Trump said he would consider amending the Constitution.”
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“There’s a growing consensus that the Trump mass deportation agenda will hit American consumers and industries hard, but the scope of what Trump and his team are proposing goes well beyond the economic impact. Trump and allies are making clear their mass deportation agenda will include deporting U.S. citizens, including children, while aiming to gut a century and a half of legal and moral precedent on birthright citizenship. In total, their attacks go well beyond the narrow lens of immigration to the fundamental question of who gets to be an American.”
In November, the New York Times reported that the Trump team plans to gut the 14th amendment and that it would not just be done through the courts, but by stopping “issuing citizenship-affirming documents, like passports and Social Security cards, to infants born on domestic soil to undocumented migrant parents in a bid to end birthright citizenship.”
And Trump’s comments on deporting American citizens en masse echo those of Trump border czar Tom Homan, who said in October: “Families can be deported together,” prompting journalist Ron Brownstein to note: “I’m not sure people are grasping the full implication of what he’s saying here: that to avoid family separation in mass deportation, Trump would also remove millions of US citizen children-a prospect that takes his deportation plan much deeper into the realm of ethnic cleansing.”
Additional Resources
- Read the analysis from America’s Voice legal advisor David Leopold, “Trump’s Plan to Gut the 14th Amendment and Redefine Citizenship”
