President Trump's promise to end birthright citizenship by executive order seems to have the approval of one of his biggest fans in Congress.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday applauded Trump for being "willing to take on this absurd policy of birthright citizenship." In an interview with Axios aired hours earlier, Trump said he plans to do so by executive order, despite the fact that this is a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. Graham has always been in support of changing the law so that being born in the United States does not guarantee a person citizenship, but in 2010, he seemed to believe that this would require a constitutional amendment.
He even planned to introduce an amendment himself: "We should change our Constitution and say if you come here illegally and you have a child, that child's automatically not a citizen," he said at the time, per Politico.
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Now, Graham says he will introduce legislation that will be "along the same lines as the proposed executive order" from Trump. Graham didn't explicitly clarify whether he believes the executive order would be constitutional, and he's still suggesting Congress step in, but at the very least he clearly supports Trump's comments. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced a failed bill last year to redefine the 14th Amendment so that the children of undocumented immigrants would not be guaranteed citizenship.
Trump declared while speaking to Axios, though, that he doesn't need Congress. "It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment," Trump said. "Guess what? You don't." Plenty of legal scholars disagree with this assessment, and even House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday, "You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order."
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