President Donald Trump's decision to end birthright citizenship -- the process by which babies born in the country automatically become citizens - to non-US citizens has triggered widespread criticism, even from his own party, ahead of the crucial mid-term elections next Tuesday.
In his latest hardline immigration rhetoric, Trump has said the birthright citizenship "has to end" and he would do it with an executive order.
Under the current laws, anyone born in the US irrespective of the nationality of parents, automatically becomes an American citizen.
"You cannot end the birthright citizenship with an executive order," said Republican Congressman Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
"We didn't like it when (former President Barack) Obama tried changing immigration laws via executive action, and obviously as conservatives, we believe in the Constitution," Ryan told a radio station in Lexington, Kentucky.
Trump told "Axios on HBO" that he intended to sign an executive order that would end "birthright citizenship" to children born in the US to mothers who are in the country illegally -- setting the stage for a challenge to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
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"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment, one amendment. You don't have to do it. Number one. Number two, you can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they are saying, I can do it just with an executive order," Trump said.
Such a practice to give citizenship to anyone born in the US is "ridiculous", Trump said.
He said that we are the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the US for 85 years with all of those benefits. "It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end".
Trump said that the effort to end this practice was in the process. "We are in the process. It'll happen with an executive order. That's what you're talking about."
Vice President Mike Pence also came out in Trump's defence, saying, "The President has made clear is that we are looking at action that would reconsider birthright citizenship."
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