Donald Trump, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), took aim at President Joe Biden, calling him ’a disaster’ before attacking birth right citizenship
US President Donald Trump made a controversial statement at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Saturday, claiming that birth right citizenship was originally intended for "children of slaves". Within his first month in office, Trump had signed an executive order aiming to terminate birth right citizenship, but it was swiftly contested in court and the issue is still pending.
Visibly frustrated by the legal obstacles his order faced, Trump argued that the constitutional provision was only meant for the children of slaves "during a very difficult time in this country’s history." He further implied that the law is now archaic, having been established "many, many years ago."
"I wish people would just understand that," he stated. "It wasn’t meant for people who escaped or invaded our country."
Trump’s approach to illegal immigration in the US has been characterised by his increasingly provocative language, labelling them as criminals and rapists. He also took the opportunity to lambaste former President Joe Biden, whom he accused of "turned everything he touched into s**t."
His contentious comments continued at CPAC, where he boasted about declaring an emergency at the southern border on his first day in office, which led to the deployment of active duty troops to "repel the invasion," as described by the 47th US President, reports the Mirror US.
A potential showdown in the Supreme Court loomed on Wednesday night when a federal appeals court upheld a lower court’s ruling to block Trump’s executive order.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has turned down an urgent request from the Justice Department to overturn a Seattle federal judge’s stay, which put a stop to Trump’s bid to end birth right citizenship for certain immigrant children. The ACLU and an immigrant rights group had already taken legal action against the executive order in two separate cases.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour in Seattle, presiding over a lawsuit brought by four states, accused the Trump administration of attempting to bypass the Constitution.
"I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is," Coughenour said to a Justice Department lawyer. "This is a blatantly unconstitutional order."
With at least nine lawsuits filed against the birth right citizenship order, Wednesday’s ruling seems poised to ignite a showdown in the Supreme Court, which currently leans conservative with a 6-3 majority among its justices. In the landmark 1982 Plyler v Doe decision, the nation’s top court struck down a Texas statute that prevented undocumented children from attending public schools, marking the most recent judgment on the issue of birth right citizenship.
The state argued that undocumented immigrants didn’t qualify as "persons within its jurisdiction", therefore claiming they weren’t covered by the equal protection tenet. However, Justice William Brennan firmly dismissed this notion in his verdict.
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