Trump’s Immigration Policy: An End to Natural Citizenship

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As both presidential candidates begin to focus on their political agendas, immigration remains one of the biggest issues in the election.

Former President Donald Trump’s platform has long focused on immigration; one of his first campaign messages in 2016 was to build a wall along the southern border. The issue is taking center stage again in this election, as Republicans increasingly sound alarms about “migrant invasions.”

“What’s happening at the border is migration, and it’s a pattern of migration that we’ve seen over the last decade, an increase in asylum seekers, on top of a pattern of migration that we’ve seen for 50 years … of people coming to the United States looking for a better life by sneaking across the border,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a fellow at the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit immigration advocacy group. “Neither of these is an invasion.”

For several administrations, immigration policy has been stalled in Congress and largely determined by executive branch, which can change at any time during elections.

President Joe Biden has already issued more executive actions on immigration than Trump did in his entire presidency, according to Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute. But Biden has shifted significantly to the right in recent years, blaming Republicans for not supporting a bipartisan immigration bill while saying he “could close the border” if one were passed.

“That’s useful context to understand how contentious some of these issues are, and also how vulnerable many of these policies are to litigation and to future administrations trying to roll back these policies,” Bush-Joseph said.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called Vice President Kamala Harris a “failed border czar” even though she is not in charge of the border. She also criticized Biden’s handling of children at the border.

“Trump will restore his effective immigration policy, implement brand new measures that will send shock waves through the world’s criminal smugglers, and marshal all federal and state powers necessary to carry out the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers in American history,” Leavitt said in a statement shared with USA TODAY.

Below are some of Trump’s proposed policies under Agenda 47 and the Republican platform.

Agenda47 on crime: Trump proposes death penalty for drug dealers, requiring stop-and-frisk

End automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants

“On Day One, President Trump will sign an executive order to prevent federal agencies from automatically granting U.S. citizenship to the children of illegal aliens… It will direct federal agencies to require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident so that their future children will automatically become U.S. citizens,” Trump’s Agenda 47 reads.

  • How we got here: Under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War in 1868, anyone born in the U.S. is an American citizen. Trump’s agenda states that this is a “major incentive for illegal immigration.”
  • In today’s context: Trump’s platform says he wants to clarify the amendment so it’s clear “that U.S. citizenship extends only to those who are both born in and ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.” Reichlin-Melnick said it’s common knowledge that “subject to jurisdiction” generally means anyone without diplomatic immunity, and stripping citizenship rights from those born here is a “crazy fringe theory.” The libertarian think tank the Cato Institute also called it an “unorthodox view” that isn’t supported by the vast majority of constitutional lawyers.

Close the border and stop the migrant invasion

Among his “20 Core Promises to Make America Great Again,” which are part of the RNC platform, Trump also pledged to “close the border and stop the migrant invasion.”

  • How we got here: “No president in U.S. history has succeeded in closing the border, despite multiple attempts to do so. This is not a new concern in the United States,” Reichlin-Melnick said. Currently, there are barriers on 654 miles of the 1,933-mile border. Trump built barriers along hundreds of miles. Toward the end of the Trump administration, border detentions rose monthly starting in April 2020 and reached a 23-year peak in December 2022, Reichlin-Melnick said. Increasing destabilization in several South American countries, including Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, has contributed to increased migration in recent years.
  • In today’s context: Biden has implemented policies that effectively reduce the number of asylum seekers allowed into the country at the border. Diplomacy and regional cooperation are also a big part of Biden’s strategy to limit migration at the border, including opening Safe Mobility Offices in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ecuador, which try to reach migrants before they reach the border and help them navigate dangerous paths; he has also tried to work with countries to take back migrants and quickly return people to Mexico at the border, Bush-Joseph said. Apprehensions have fallen to levels seen in the summer of 2020, Reichlin-Melnick said. “That means whoever takes over in January is likely to inherit a border that is calmer than the border Biden inherited,” he said, warning that things could change quickly.

More: After record years, the number of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border is falling

Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history

In the RNC’s 20 top promises, Trump states that he will “carry out the largest deportation in American history.”

  • How we got here: Bush-Joseph said the Biden administration is on track to deport as many people as the Trump administration, but Biden has focused deportations on recent arrivals at the border and on people from within the country who posed a threat to national security or public safety. She said this is different from the first Trump administration, where deportations resulting from domestic arrests were not targeted and created a “climate of fear.”
  • In today’s context: According to Reichlin-Melnick, given the court backlog and the limited reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a mass deportation could require congressional action for more funding or legal reforms. Also, places like Venezuela will not allow the U.S. to deport people back to their home countries. “So anyone who gets arrested on Day One of the Trump administration, there’s a good chance they won’t even get an answer as to whether they’re allowed to stay until after the (administration) is over,” he said.

End ‘birth tourism’

“The Executive Order will also put an end to ‘birth tourism.’ Through ‘birth tourism,’ tens of thousands of foreigners fraudulently enter the United States each year during the final weeks of their pregnancy for the sole purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for their child,” Trump’s Agenda47 said.

In 2020, Trump issued new visa guidelines to try to curb “birth tourism,” without providing evidence that it was a growing problem. This wasn’t so much a policy change as a directive that officials should heed, since tourist visas are issued for business or pleasure, not to come here to have children, Reichlin-Melnick said.

“Another important point to understand about the visa process is that tourist visas are granted for a period of 10 years,” he said, explaining that someone can come to the country without the intention of having children and their circumstances can change.

Stop the migrant crime epidemic

“End the immigrant crime epidemic, destroy foreign drug cartels, combat gang violence, and lock up violent criminals,” reads one of Trump’s 20 platform promises.

  • How we got here: Research shows that immigrants commit fewer crimes than people born in the U.S. Republicans often cite violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants during their campaigns, and a Pew Research Center study shows that the majority of Americans to believe More migrants entering the country leads to more crime.
  • In today’s context: Recent research shows that violent crime in U.S. cities is falling back to pre-pandemic levels. In July, two alleged leaders of Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel were arrested, with prosecutors alleging they were largely responsible for the flow of fentanyl into the country.

The RNC platform on immigration also includes strict screening, closing down “sanctuary cities” and enforcing immigration laws, a Trump campaign spokesman said.

Contributions by: Brad Sylvester, Terry Collins, Doug Stanglin, Deirdre Shesgreen, Joey Garrison, Lauren Villagran

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