Local Immigration Activists Angered By President’s Plan To End Birthright Citizenship

CHARLOTTE, NC. — Just a week before midterm elections, President Trump making a controversial promise tied to immigration. He says he’ll use an executive order to end birthright citizenship. That’s the right to citizenship for children born to non-citizens and undocumented immigrants on US soil.

Hector Vaca says he fights for the rights of immigrants because that’s where his story began. He was born in New York City, the child of immigrant parents.

“Saying that those of us who were born here, US citizens, who are children of immigrants, that we cannot be Americans anymore, it hit home for me. Really bad,” says Vaca with Action NC.

Vaca is angry after hearing this interview the President gave to Axios saying this:

“Where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous,” says President Donald Trump.

The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution says that All persons born in the US are citizens of the US.

Lisa Diefenderfer is a Charlotte immigration attorney. She says an executive order cannot make a drastic change to a Constitutional right, “Even more scary because it is the US Constitution, and you think with the flick of a pen you can just change that, then you clearly don’t understand the oath that you took to defend the constitution.”

Diefenderfer says it would be a waste of federal resources.

“How is he planning to carry this out? Are they going to create a task force, are they going to investigate every single birth certificate that’s generated in the United States. How much time an money is that wasting.”

The President’s comments come one week before election day. Political experts say he’s focusing on immigration to motivate republicans — especially in crucial border state races.