Washington: The second Republican Presidential debate of the 2024 US election was held on Wednesday. During the debate, Indian-American presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy proposed several harsh policy changes. One of them making headlines since then is his call for ending the birthright citizenship for children of the illegal immigrants residing in the US.
The debate was held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California. It saw the participation of 7 candidates including Ramaswamy, north Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
According to a report of The Washington Post, ‘He was asked by Univision host Ilia Calderón ‘what legal premise’ he would use to expel undocumented immigrants and their American-born children from the country. Ramaswamy began by noting that his opponents onstage ‘are on the right side of this issue’ by supporting the militarization of the southern border, defunding “sanctuary cities,” and an end to foreign aid to Mexico and Central America, but the candidate said he would go a ‘step further’ by ending birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country.’
Supporting his advocation against repealing the birthright citizenship, Ramaswamy quoted the 14th Amendment which says, ‘all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the laws and jurisdiction thereof, are citizens.’
He then added, ‘Because of this, children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be granted citizenship, because their parents ‘broke the law’ to be in the country’.
However, this is not the first time a Republican Presidential Candidate has advocated against birthright citizenship. In 2015, Donald Trump had also proposed that Congress should repeal the birthright citizenship.