Big change in the US! Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship, deport all illegal immigrants

US president-elect Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship as well as deport all illegal immigrants in the country. He however wants to protect the so-called “dreamer” immigrants.

In an interview on NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker’, Trump said that he plans to take executive action to end birthright citizenship on the first day in office. Birthright citizenship is conferred on anyone who is born in the US irrespective of the parents’ immigration status. 

Trump’s plans to end birthright citizenship is not likely to be achieved easily and would face legal challenges. The right stems from an amendment to the US constitution and is supported by the 1898 Supreme Court precedent.

The Republican is also expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he takes office on January 20, and order a countrywide crackdown. As of January 2022, the US Department of Homeland Security estimated some 11 million illegal immigrants in the US. 

Trump wants to deport anyone without a legal status. "I think you have to do it," Trump said. "It’s a very tough thing to do. You know, you have rules, regulations, laws," he said.

He also said that Republicans are open to the idea of protecting ‘dreamer’ immigrants who were brought to the US illegally as children. He told Welker that people who have been treated unfairly are the ones who have queued up online for 10 years to come to the country legally. “We are going to make it very easy for people to come in terms of they have to pass the test. They have to be able to tell you what the Statue of Liberty is. They have to tell you a little bit about our country. They have to love our country,” Trump said.

He said he would accept people with criminal records who have served jail time. “They can't come out of prisons. We don't want people that are in for murder,” saying he does not want “those people” in the country.  

Talking about ‘dreamer’ immigrants he wants to protect, Trump said many such people who were brought to the country at a very young age are middle-aged people now and they don’t even speak the language of their origin country. 

“Republicans are very open to the dreamers. The dreamers, we're talking many years ago, they were brought into this country. Some of them are no longer young people. In many cases, they become successful. They have great jobs. We are going to have to do something with them,” he said.