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President Donald Trump needs to regain the public’s trust on immigration; the Supreme Court’s decision to rule on the president’s executive order ending birthright citizenship will allow him to do just that.
Win or lose, the White House can use the court’s decision to reignite the debate over immigration and propose common-sense improvements to our country’s broken system. Changes that should include no longer counting undocumented people in the census, ending the diversity lottery and initiating a merit-based admissions program.
President Trump was elected in part to end the immigration crisis created by his predecessor, President Joe Biden. The nation was horrified that Biden allowed millions of migrants to enter the country illegally. Voters were disgusted by scenes of chaos at the border; in December 2023 alone, some 300,000 people crossed into the United States illegally, largely unvetted for criminal histories or health issues. It was a national disgrace.
Trump, as promised, quickly secured the border, but his aggressive deportation policies are unpopular and his approval rating on immigration has plummeted into deeply red territory.
He needs to reset his immigration approach, which may prove critical to holding onto the historic inroads he and other GOP candidates made with Hispanic voters last year. Latinos who followed the rules to enter our country oppose illegal immigration; they do not like their neighborhoods threatened by Venezuelan gangs or their communities’ hospitals and schools overrun by undocumented migrants. But, they also don’t like seeing their long-standing neighbors picked up by ICE officers just because they are in the country illegally.
Birthright citizenship is a good reminder of how messed up our immigration rules are. The approach guarantees that anyone born on U.S. soil automatically becomes a citizen, regardless of the immigration status of their birth parents. The rule is opposed by those who consider it an enticement to illegal immigration, which it certainly is.
In addition, it spawns "birthright tourism"; people from all over the world abuse this generous regulation, rare amongst developed nations, traveling to the United States from China, Mexico and elsewhere to give birth, knowing that a U.S. passport is worth its weight in gold.
Those supportive of the tradition argue that it was established under the 14th amendment to the constitution, enacted in 1868, which stipulates that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." The White House maintains the rule was never meant to include people in the country illegally, but was instead passed to override the Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scott decision, which barred black Americans from becoming citizens. They also claim that undocumented people living in the shadows are not "subject to the jurisdiction of the United States."
Democrats universally support birthright citizenship. They actually favor any program that increases illegal immigration, which puts them at odds with the majority of the country.
Gallup polling showed that as recently as last year, 55% of Americans thought immigration should be reduced, and that nearly half the country supported "Deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally..." Since then, as Democrats and their media allies have worked overtime demonizing ICE agents rounding up drug and sex traffickers, and some who are simply in the country illegally, peoples’ attitudes have softened.
Most Americans want our immigration laws to benefit our country and a majority approved of the two-part immigration program that President Trump rolled out in his first term. The plan included stepped-up border security, but also created a merit-based immigration system that would prioritize people who bring needed capabilities to the U.S.
As President Trump said in 2018, some "70 percent of immigrants who come to the United States today are admitted based on family relationships or through a random visa lottery — a system that favors random chance over the skills our economy needs." He proposed a point-based system, like that used in Canada, which would "increase the number of legal immigrants selected on the basis of skill or merit from 12 percent to 57 percent."
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Trump’s proposal met with broad bipartisan support. According to a 2018 national poll conducted by Harvard University, a merit-based immigration plan was supported by 84 percent of registered voters, including 75 percent of registered Democrats and finding support across all racial and ethnic lines.
Democrats oppose common-sense immigration reforms and conflate legal and illegal immigration. They are confident that a large majority of those who enter the country illegally will ultimately be able to vote, and will back their party.
Even now, illegal immigration is a boon to Democrats in charge of blue states like California and New York, whose reckless spending and consequent high taxation are driving residents to move to more affordable states like Florida and Texas. Mass outmigration should lead to reduced federal aid and fewer congressional seats and Electoral College votes. However, because the government includes undocumented people in the decennial census, Democrats pay zero penalty for poor policies. That must end.
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The treatment of undocumented people who have lived in the U.S. honorably for decades and contributed to their communities must also change. Wholesale deportations are not the answer. Such people should be allowed to apply for alien resident status, but understand that as a penalty for entering illegally, they will never become citizens.
Our immigration system does not put America first; President Trump has a chance to fix it. He is right on birthright citizenship; as the executive order states, "the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States." That is true; the children of foreign diplomats, for instance, do not become citizens even if they are born on U.S. soil. It is encouraging that the court will review this issue, but even if President Trump’s executive order is struck down, there is plenty more work to be done.
Liz Peek is a Fox News contributor and former partner of major bracket Wall Street firm Wertheim & Company. A former columnist for the Fiscal Times, she writes for The Hill and contributes frequently to Fox News, the New York Sun and other publications. For more visit LizPeek.com. Follow her on Twitter @LizPeek.
