US President-elect Trump plans to end birthright citizenship, pledges action on illegal immigration

United States President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to end the country’s ‘Birthright Citizenship’ included in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

Trump, in an interview on Dec 8, said that he also aims to deport all immigrants who have illegally entered the US over his four-year term.

“I think you have to do it. It’s a very tough thing to do. You know, you have rules, regulations, laws," Trump said.

According to the American Immigration Council, those born within the borders of the United States are automatically awarded citizenship irrespective of the parent's immigration status.

Birthright citizenship which is supported by the 1898 Supreme Court precedent is also referred to as 'jus soli’ which is a Latin phrase meaning “right of the soil.”

In the interview with NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,’ Trump, however, said that he would like to protect the

‘Dreamers’ or undocumented immigrants and work with Democrats to work out a way to let them remain in the country. Talking about ‘dreamer’ immigrants, Trump said many immigrants were brought to the country as a child and are middle-aged people now who 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.

The 78-year-old Republican is also expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency after assuming President’s office on Jan 20 next year and order a countrywide crackdown.

As of January 2022, the US Department of Homeland Security data revealed that an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants were in the US.