My parents and my brother came to America before I was born to seek better opportunities and to provide a better lifestyle for me and my brother. I was lucky enough to be born in America to avoid all the complicated processes and papers needed to properly become a citizen of the United States.
Last Tuesday, Donald Trump, who calls himself the President of the United States, expressed his desire to issue an executive order that would eliminate birthright citizenship. This policy states that anyone born in the United States has citizenship regardless of whether their parents were also born in America or not.
"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump told Axios in an interview. "You can definitely do it with an act of Congress but now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order."
To think that Trump believes that he has all this power is insane. Is this a democracy or a dictatorship? Unfortunately for him, he does NOT have this power.
Birthright citizenship is supported by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
This potential executive order clearly goes against the Constitution. This means that it can only be undone by a constitutional amendment.
Trump is literally trying to undo all of Former President Barack Obama's work from his eight years of presidency. Obama had his flaws here and there, but his policies changed people's lives for the better.
Trump doesn't care about how this can dramatically affect people's lives and their plans for the future. With one word, he can become a person's worst nightmare. He may have already become one. If you had that kind of power, how much of a tyrant can you be to intentionally abuse that power and change people's lives for the worst?
In the media, people without documentation or proper citizenship are labeled as "aliens." Trump doesn't even see them as people; otherwise, he would treat like humans instead of dirty rags that can be thrown around.
Why is this his number one priority? Why do our taxpayer dollars go towards this? The Trump administration is so focused on trying to keep people without documentation out, when there are other issues, such as the opioid crisis and school shootings.
If you are currently supporting Trump's desire to end birthright citizenship, please first consider the people who may be affected by this. Please see them as people first. Treat them like the humans that they are.