Trump's executive orders should worry all US citizens
By; Elvia Diaz
Arizona Republic
USA Today Network
..... Donald Trump just ripped up the 14th Amendment to deny birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrates. shortly after becoming the 47th president, Trump issued a slew of executive orders targeting migrants, drug cartels and, yes U.S. citizens.
.....
He declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, directing the "armed forces" to take control. He designated cartels as terrorist organizations and cracked down on asylum seekers.
..... All that was met with cheering from his supporters and even some Democrats, whew have decided it is best to jump on Trump's bandwagon. They foolishly believe the guy cares about "common ground."
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But what got some gasping was Trump's order to unilaterally end birth-right citizenship.
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"if you're born in America, you're an cameraman," Arizona Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Kelly said on X. "that's a great thing about our country and in the Constitution. Presidents don't get to just change that."
..... Well, guess what? Trump just did.
..... "the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States," Trump;s executive order read.
..... The 14th amendment was ratified in 1868 to give U.S. citizenship to enslaved Black people who had been emancipated.
..... The first sentence reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizen of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
..... In 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed those citizenship rights in the case of United States v. Wong Kim ark.
Trump is running roughshod over the Constitution
..... Until now, any talk of ending that birthright had been viewed as fringe or pure fantasy.
..... But now Trump is president again.
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And this time, nothing is stopping him, not even the U.S. Constitution, which he swore to defend and protect.
..... The American Civil Liberties Union immediately field a lawsuit challenging the executive order's constitutionality, and other lawsuits will almost certainly follow. On Tuesday [01/21/2025] a coalition of attorneys general from 18 states field their own lawsuit.
..... Thursday, [01/23/2025]
a U.S. judge in Seattle temporarily blocked the order, calling it "blatantly unconstitutional."
..... Trump said he would appeal.
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Let's hope U.S. Supreme court justices ultimately see the danger of letting a single individual unilaterally dismantle a constitutional amendment. The consequences are terrifying.
..... And don't be foolish to think that this is just about penalizing undocumented parents. This is much bigger than that - it's the kind of destructive power that is hard to contain once it goes unchecked.
..... History has taught us what happens when a single individual decides he has the power to rip up the thing that holds a country together. In our case, that thing is called the U.S. constitution.
Elvia Diaz is editorial page editor for The Arizona Republic and azcentral, where this column first appeared. Reach her at elvia-diaz@arizonarepublic.com. follow her on X (formerly Twitter): @elviadiaz1.