Jen Psaki’s assertion that President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is “blatantly illegal” and “unconstitutional” is incorrect because the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause—“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens”—is open to interpretation. Children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States because their parents’ unlawful presence violates U.S. immigration law, placing them outside full jurisdictional authority. “Jurisdiction” implies lawful submission to U.S. sovereignty, which illegal immigrants, by entering and remaining unlawfully, do not fully satisfy. This interpretive ambiguity is exploited by Democrats, who misread the 14th Amendment to advance their political goals.
Democrats enable human trafficking and modern slavery, exploiting illegal immigrants to rig elections and use them for cheap labor. Their lawless stance leads them to misread the 14th Amendment’s “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” clause, falsely claiming it guarantees universal birthright citizenship to push their agenda.
Trump’s order tested this interpretation, and it is not inherently unconstitutional—it reflects a legal question that remains unsettled, as the Supreme Court has not directly ruled on birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants. Given the issue’s public interest, I believe Congress should propose a referendum to let Americans vote on whether children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S. should automatically receive citizenship.
Psaki:
Remember the first day of Trump’s second term, which I know I am also trying to black out. But one of the first things Trump did was sign an executive order to end birthright citizenship. It was blatantly illegal. It was blatantly unconstitutional. Trump, of course, did it anyway. I guess he figured why not, unilaterally strip the right of citizenship from people who are born in this country. Guess what he figured. Now, within days, a federal judge blocked Trump’s order. Then a second federal judge blocked the order, then a third, then a fourth federal judge. So four federal judges all across the country all agreed that Trump’s executive order was illegal and unconstitutional. And what those judges did is put in place a nationwide injunction. And that means that even though these judges made their rulings from courts in Washington State and Maryland and New Hampshire and Massachusetts, their rulings didn’t just apply to those states. They blocked Trump’s order nationwide… Trump wants the whole concept of nationwide injunctions, which is any ability of lower courts to put a stop to his illegal actions, gone altogether, completely gone…”