Trump restates commitment to ending birthright citizenship

In interviews with both Time Magazine and NBC's Meet the Press, Pres.-elect Donald Trump continued his calls for ending birthright citizenship. The outdated practice allows most children born in the United States to automatically receive citizenship regardless of the immigration status of their parents. Trump also restated his commitment to conducting mass deportations of illegal aliens living in the United States.

For decades, legislation has been introduced in Congress to end birthright citizenship. The Birthright Citizenship Act, introduced during the current Congress by Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), would require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen, legal permanent resident, or a nonimmigrant actively serving in the military for a newborn to receive automatic citizenship. Trump has floated the idea of ending the practice through an executive order. Either way, any change likely will lead to the Supreme Court having to decide what “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th Amendment means.

Meanwhile, Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, clearing the way for a continuing resolution (CR) to extend government funding beyond next week's deadline. Passing a CR should be the last major action taken by the 118th Congress.

The NDAA passed without any bad immigration provisions. A handful of lawmakers were pushing to add the Afghan Adjustment Act to the NDAA. The Afghan Adjustment Act would grant amnesty to tens of thousands of Afghans who were able to escape the country during the U.S. evacuation and didn't qualify for the special immigrant visa program created by Congress to help Afghans who assisted U.S. troops during the war.

As for the CR, Congressional leaders are getting close to a final agreement to extend government funding into March. According to Axios, lawmakers have agreed on a date, but they've yet to agree on what policy provisions will be added. However, we don't expect there to be any immigration provisions added to the must-pass bill.

Immigration News

Recent Immigration Surge Has Been Largest in U.S. History
The immigration article that drew the most attention this week came from the New York Times. Now that the election is over (which I'm sure is a coincidence), the NYT has finally realized that there was a historic border surge and that outgoing President Biden was responsible. "Several factors caused the surge, starting with President Biden's welcoming immigration policy during his first three years in office... After taking office, his administration loosened the rules on asylum and other immigration policies, making it easier for people to enter the United States."

David Leonhardt does an excellent job in this article of breaking down historic immigration levels, causes and effects of the border surge, and forecasting what may come in the Trump Administration. We strongly recommend taking a look.

EXCLUSIVE: Biden Races To Sell Off Border Wall Parts Before Trump Takes Office
In this stunning report, the Daily Wire uncovered that the Biden Administration is actively hauling away portions of border wall materials to be auctioned off before Trump takes office. Once President Biden took office, various news reports covered piles of unused border wall pieces rusting in the desert. If there was any question that the outgoing administration would be working to undermine the incoming one, this article should lay that to rest.

Trump aims to end birthright citizenship, says American citizens with family here illegally may be deported
This Sunday, President-elect Trump made headlines for his immigration comments on Meet the Press when pressed on his immigration policies. He stood by his plans for mass deportation and even proposed ending automatic birthright citizenship for illegal aliens via executive action. Both of those policy changes would make an enormous difference in restoring the integrity of our immigration system. On the other side of the spectrum, however, he proposed working on an amnesty plan for a population of "Dreamers" with Democrats.

Democrats beg Biden to expand amnesty for illegal immigrants before Trump takes office
Not content with simply selling off border wall material, 7 Senate Democrats, led by Sen. Durbin (IL), have written to President Biden asking him to grant more unilateral executive amnesty prior to Trump taking office. The letter calls for granting Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for “all eligible countries,” processing DACA applications, using advance parole, accelerating asylum hearings, and automatically extending work permits. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has already announced the automatic employment authorization extension. IAP will keep an eye out for any other amnesty actions in the coming weeks.

Youngkin to draft sanctuary city ban, making state funding contingent on ICE cooperation
While many governors have been making the news for promising resistance to the Trump Administration's immigration enforcement efforts, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia is planning to propose a budget that ends sanctuary cities in the Commonwealth. Virginia has been featured regularly in our articles for sanctuary jurisdictions releasing repeat offenders who Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) wanted to remove from the country. Hopefully, other governors will follow his lead.

A Brief History of Military Assistance in Immigration Enforcement
Among many proposed immigration actions, President Trump has suggested he may use the U.S. military to help enforce immigration law. Our friend Art Arthur at the Center for Immigration Studies breaks down the many instances since 1980 when the military assisted in dealing with immigration.

A Note on Accountability

If you haven't been by the website in a while, take a look at the Member Accountability Page and see what your Member of Congress has been up to on immigration in the last few weeks of the 118th Congress. You can search by Member or use this feed, which shows you all the most recent actions and press releases.

Next Week

Both chambers of Congress will be in session on Monday. Legislative text of a continuing resolution to extend government funding in to 2025 could be released this weekend.