Kansas Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Kris Kobach (R) on Wednesday said the 14th Amendment does not guarantee birthright citizenship to children born to undocumented immigrants, a position that is at odds with legal experts.
“There are many people who are under the misimpression that the 14th Amendment commands it. It doesn’t,” Kobach said on Fox News when asked about President Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship via executive order.
{mosads}”The 14th Amendment doesn’t say all persons born in the United States … are citizens of the United States,” said Kobach, who helped draft Trump’s immigration policy. “It says all persons born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.”
“And what that meant according to the framers of the 14th Amendment in 1866 is that if you’re here temporarily, if you’re a foreign diplomat, if you’re a foreign visitor … that child doesn’t become a citizen,” he said, adding that it means children of “illegal aliens and temporary visitors” do not have a guarantee of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
“So either Congress could change it, or, the way our statute’s currently drafted, the president could do it through a regulation,” Kobach said.
Legal experts have said the president does not have the authority to alter the Constitution through executive action.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday announced he would introduce legislation to end birthright citizenship.
Trump argued on Wednesday that the language in the 14th Amendment restricts birthright citizenship to those “subject to the jurisdiction” of the united States.