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“In the name of our god, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now” – NBC News, Direct even from Washigton DC, January 21st, 2025. These are the words of Mariann Budde, who made a speech at Trump’s inauguration. Her words are strong and filled of emotions all the way through.
Indeed, US citizens and inhabitants are probably right to be scared by everything going on in their country if we look at the 26 executive orders Trump signed at his inauguration -based on radio Canada-.
The greatest example is, in my opinion, his executive order to remove the Citizenship and civil rights. We can already remember that that right is granted by the 14th amendment of the US constitution : “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Donald Trump is talking about removing something that is in the constitution since July 9th, 1868. The last time that right was questioned was in 1898, and the Supreme Court decided to go with the constitution.
The Citizenship and civil rights means that every child born in the US can and will have American nationality. At least it is the case if the president doesn’t go through. Yet, president Donald Trump would like that only children born by us citizen, or legal resident, or legal resident in the army could have the nationality.
According to Amnesty International, this executive order, with other about immigration, is leading to massive expulsions, the restauration of harsh border decisions, the end of some constitutional rights, and even more : targeted raids across the US. However, immigration represents nearly 2 million people between 2022 and 2023. According to Pew Research Center, around 4.4 million children born in the US are living with illegal immigrants parents in 2022. Among the adults born in the US, estimations are that 1.4 million of them have illegal immigrants parents.
An important question stays in mind : Is Donald Trump allowed to take such a decision ? Well, according to France Info, he could eventually remove the 14th amendment, but to do so, he would need to propose a new one, with 2/3 vote in the Senate, and ¾ States agreeing with that new one.
There are still so many other question if this is applied : would a child, already born in the US and that now has the nationality, but whose parents don’t qualify for Trump’s standards, be deported with his parents ? Well, TF1 is telling us it is very improbable, and that those cases would quickly be brought to the Supreme Court.
Thankfully, we know since Thursday, January 23rd 2025 that a judge in the federal court of Seattle blocked that executive order. He is supported by the Washington DA, Nick Brown, as we can see in the intervention relayed by TV5MONDE. He even says there that Trump’s decision was absurd, and that the constitution had been decided by the Supreme Court, and even reviewed by other president before the 45th and now 47th president.
Yet, as we can read in the article and the report about it from France 24, the president say that obviously, they will appeal the decision. It is a new battle about that executive order that starts now. 22 States were immediately against it the first time, like the state of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Hawaii, or even California. The battle will be complicated for the government, especially since federal judges are calling that order as “unconstitutional”.
The final decision is yet to be announced, but it seems very little probable that the US constitution will change, at least on this point. The 14th amendment will then probably stay, a very short reprieve for US residents as other executive orders are already in action, expulsing already hundreds of migrants at the South border.