Trump Says He’ll End ‘Ridiculous’ Birthright Citizenship, But Hints At Compromise With Democrats On ‘Dreamers’

President-elect Donald Trump reiterated his plans to end birthright citizenship in the United States, which would require him to circumvent the 14th Amendment.

In an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker, Trump was asked how he plans to end birthright citizenship. “If we can, through executive action. I was going to do it through executive action, but then we had to fix Covid first, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “We have to end it. It’s ridiculous.”

The 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The Constitution requires a vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress to change its provisions.

Trump also talked about Dreamers, who are foreign-born children who immigrated to the United States at a young age and grew up here.

“We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age,” he said. “And many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about the Dreamers.”

Trump claimed that he’s willing to work with Democrats on a plan for Dreamers. He then he said he still plans to deport everyone who is currently in the U.S. illegally.

“It’s hard – it’s a very tough thing to do. But you have to have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally. You know, the people that have been treated very unfairly are the people that have been on line for ten years to come into the country,” Trump stated.

Republicans expect Trump to tack action on his mass deportation plan immediately. Colombia-born Ohio Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno told Illinois Republicans, “We’re going to resolve immigration the first 40 to 60 days.”

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