New Jersey Attorney General Trying To Block Trump's Executive Order Ending Birthright Citizenship

Washington: New Jersey Attorney General has said that he's leading an effort to block Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship, AP reported on Tuesday. 

On Monday, Trump after assuming US Presidency in his first broadcast network interview since his re-election outlined an assertive plan for his second term, pledging sweeping policy changes and controversial actions on immigration, criminal justice, and executive leadership.

Emphasising his ambitions to reshape immigration policy, Trump pledged to eliminate birthright citizenship, a constitutional guarantee under the 14th Amendment that grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

While legal scholars have largely dismissed this as unconstitutional, Trump said, "We're going to have to get it changed," leaving open the possibility of pursuing executive actions or constitutional amendments. "We'll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it," he added. The president-elect inaccurately claimed, "We're the only country that has it," despite 34 other nations also offering unrestricted birthright citizenship, reported New York Times.

In a notable deviation from his hardline rhetoric, Trump expressed a willingness to collaborate with Democrats to protect Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. "We have to do something about the Dreamers because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age," he said. "And many of these are middle-aged people now.

They don't even speak the language of their country. And yes, we're going to do something about the Dreamers." While he blamed Democrats for failing to safeguard Dreamers, it was former President Barack Obama who introduced the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in 2012, shielding 700,000 individuals from deportation. Trump previously attempted to rescind DACA but faced legal roadblocks in the Supreme Court.

Among his other promises, Trump vowed to pardon hundreds of Capitol rioters, end automatic citizenship for children born to immigrants in the United States, and push for retribution against political adversaries, including members of Congress who investigated him, New York Times reported.

With inputs from AP