With midterm elections coming up in a week, Donald Trump has seemingly decided to once again spread false narratives regarding immigrants in the U.S. Could it be his tactic to regain the trust of Americans by instilling fears that he promises to rid?
Just last week, Trump proposed an executive order which has come as a shock to both Republicans and Democrats. Moreover, Trump plans on revoking citizenship from U.S. born citizens. That’s right, he plans on proposing an executive order to revoke the citizenship of people born in the United States to noncitizens, or what he refers to as, “anchor babies”. The term “anchor babies” was frequently used by Trump during the 2016 presidential election to reference children born in America from immigrant parents. However, Trump depicted these children as people conceived in a foreign country and birthed in America, so that the parents can reap the benefits of having a U.S. born child. He even went as far as stating that “We’re the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits”.
In addition, Trump has successfully convinced the majority of Republicans that “anchor babies” are to blame for the exploitation of government benefits, and therefore generating support for Trump as he promises to revoke their citizenship status. However, it is believed that Trump would often refer to Latin American countries when referring to anchor babies during the 2016 presidential election.
He has now changed his narrative and has expressed great interest in revoking citizenship from all citizens born from immigrant parents, whether they be anywhere from Latin America or Europe.
Outrage on both the Republican and Democrat population of Americans has been conveyed in response to the order, as recent statistics show that children under the age of 18 who were born from noncitizen parents account for approximately 26 percent of people under 18 alone.
The question at bay is, how many of Trump’s supporters will jump on his bandwagon too rid all “anchor babies” of citizenship? Seeing that Trump has managed to instill fear over seemingly ignorant claims with no basis in the past, it is highly possible that many Americans will fall into his fear tactics and vote for him once again.
As a matter of fact, this would not be the first time that Trump spread false threatening narratives to get Americans to vote for him. During the 2016 elections, Trump proposed to build a wall which would cover the entire border between the United States and Mexico, his reasoning behind this was to keep people from Latin America out. During his campaign, Trump did not shy away from communicating his plans to build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border and even stated that Mexicans were to blame for this proposed wall, even going as far as stating that “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists”. By generalizing Mexicans and spreading misinformation to scare Americans, Trump was able to gain a high number of supporters which believed that his proposed solution to a seemingly ignorant claim, would protect them.
Despite his supporters, judges and lawyers are scoffing at the validity of his planned executive order, stating that it defies the constitution, as the fourth amendment clearly states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”. It will be seemingly difficult for even the president to override what is stated in the constitution, giving the impression that his proposed order is simply another way for him to gain followers.