Politics

Trump Rails Against Birthright Citizenship At Rally

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Mike Brest Reporter
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President Trump continued to promote his plan to end birthright citizenship during his rally in Estero, Florida on Wednesday night.

WATCH:

“The Democrats want to continue giving automatic birthright citizenship to every child born to an illegal alien. Even if they’ve been on our soil for a matter of seconds. Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrant children are made automatic citizens every year because of this crazy policy and they are instantly eligible for every privilege and benefit of American citizenship at a cost of billions of dollars a year,” Trump stated.

“That’s what it costs — billions. Back before the [Democratic] Party went crazy they also opposed this practice. Harry Reid said ‘no sane country,’ ‘no sane country’ would grant automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants — that’s what he said before he went crazy,” he continued. (RELATED: Fact Check: Is The US The Only Country With Birthright Citizenship?)

The president recently raised the issue during an interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan on Monday night. During the interview, Trump explained that he doesn’t believe there is a need for a constitutional amendment to overturn birthright citizenship. Despite the president’s claim, many have said that an executive order would not be sufficient to overturn it.

US President Donald Trump waves during a campaign rally in Estero, Florida, on October 31, 2018. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

US President Donald Trump waves during a campaign rally in Estero, Florida, on October 31, 2018. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

“Under this policy anyone who breaks into the country and has a child the very next moment that child would be made a citizen for life. Great. This policy has even created an entire industry of birth tourism,” Trump added. “Big business, where pregnant mothers travel to America to make their children instant American citizens. Congress has never passed a law requiring birthright citizenship for illegal aliens and the Constitution does not, and I say that to the media, does not require it — read it — because illegal aliens are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”

The president was in Florida on behalf of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis and Senate candidate Rick Scott. Both are in tight races going into the November 6th election.

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