Trump says he's seriously considering ending his citizenship

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his government is seriously considering ending the citizenship rights of children born to US citizens and people who have immigrated illegally to the United States.

"We're looking at it very seriously: citizenship at birth, where you have a baby on our land, you're crossing the border, have a baby – congratulations, the baby is now a US citizen. It's frankly ridiculous, Trump told reporters outside the White House.

Trump has made repression of immigration a central pillar of his presidency and his re-election campaign, but many of the drastic changes to government rules and decrees have been thwarted by the courts.

In October 2018, the Republican president told the Axios press site that he would end "legitimate citizenship" by decree. Experts said such an approach would run counter to the US Constitution.

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, adopted after the Civil War to guarantee blacks the full right of citizenship, granted citizenship to "all naturalized or born in the United States".

Since then, it has been commonly interpreted as granting citizenship to most people born in the United States, whether their parents are US citizens or legally living in the United States.