House Speaker Paul Ryan broke with President Trump on Tuesday, telling WVLK that he "cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order."
Why it matters: Trump told "Axios on HBO" that his desired executive order is "in the process," despite the majority of legal experts saying it's not within his power to do so. Ryan told the Lexington, Kentucky, radio station, "As a conservative, I’m a believer in following the plain text of the Constitution, and I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear."
For the first time, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) released a multi-state TV ad campaign in Spanish to help boost Latino voter turnout before the 2018 midterm elections. The ad — which is one of Democrats' strongest rebuttals to the GOP's closing argument on immigration — will run on Telemundo and Univision in eight cities with key battleground House races in New Mexico, Texas, Nevada, California and Utah.
Why it matters: Democrats have been criticized this cycle (much like during other elections) for not putting significant resources towards engaging Latino voters, who they consider a crucial piece of their base. But this $500,000 ad buy is part of the DCCC's $30 million investment this year in registering and turning out millennials and voters of color.
Vice President Mike Pence confirmed Tuesday that the White House was examining taking action on ending birthright citizenship in an interview with Politico, adding that the Supreme Court "has never ruled on whether or not the language of the 14th Amendment — 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof' — applies specifically to people who are in the country illegally."
The big picture: Pence is correct that the Supreme Court hasn't ruled on a Citizenship Clause case specifically involving unauthorized immigrants, but the landmark 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark affirmed that people born in the U.S. are considered American citizens regardless of their parents' immigration status, per the ACLU. Pence's argument about that specific phrase in the amendment is backed by some conservatives, though few legal scholars believe Trump would be able to end birthright citizenship via an executive order.
Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman crunched the numbers from the "wave" elections in the 2006 and 2010 midterms, and found that if things broke the same way in 2018, Democrats would net nearly 40 seats in the House.
Between the lines: Wasserman found the party not in power in those years saw these averages:
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) tweeted his praise Tuesday of President Trump's plan to end birthright citizenship via an executive order, which Trump revealed during an exclusive interview with "Axios on HBO."
"Finally, a president willing to take on this absurd policy of birthright citizenship. I’ve always supported comprehensive immigration reform — and at the same time — the elimination of birthright citizenship. The United States is one of two developed countries in the world who grant citizenship based on location of birth. This policy is a magnet for illegal immigration, out of the mainstream of the developed world, and needs to come to an end. In addition, I plan to introduce legislation along the same lines as the proposed executive order from President Trump."
Activist and billionaire Tom Steyer is paying more attention to gubernatorial races, but he still feels strongly about Democrats taking back control of the House. "If we don’t flip the House it’s a failed year. Full stop," he told me over coffee while he was in Washington last weekend.
Why it matters: Steyer is becoming the Koch network of the left, investing at least $110 million in the 2018 midterms and implementing on-the-ground teams in battleground states across the country.
In an interview with "Axios on HBO", President Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is "the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States ... with all of those benefits."
Reality check: More than 30 other countries — mostly in the Western Hemisphere, specifically in the Americas — offer birthright citizenship, including Canada and Mexico, according to World Atlas.
The American Civil Liberties Union hit back at President Trump's plan to sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil, tweeting that it is "blatantly unconstitutional."
This is a blatantly unconstitutional attempt to fan the flames of anti-immigrant hatred in the days ahead of the midterms.
The 14th Amendment’s citizenship guarantee is clear. You can’t erase the Constitution with an executive order, @realDonaldTrump.
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In an exclusive interview for "Axios on HBO," President Trump said he plans to sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil — prompting immediate questions about whether he actually has the authority to do so.
The big picture: Few immigration and constitutional scholars believe it is within the president's power to change birthright citizenship, former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief counsel Lynden Melmed told Axios. But some conservatives have argued that the 14th Amendment was only intended to provide citizenship to children born in the U.S. to lawful permanent residents — not to unauthorized immigrants or those on temporary visas.
President Trumpplans to sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for babies of non-citizens and unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil, he said yesterday in an exclusive interview for "Axios on HBO," a new four-part documentary news series debuting on HBO this Sunday at 6:30 p.m. ET/PT.
Why it matters: This would be the most dramatic move yet in Trump's hard-line immigration campaign, this time targeting "anchor babies" and "chain migration." And it will set off another standoff with the courts, as Trump’s power to do this through executive action is debatable, to say the least.
With one week until the midterm elections, the state of the Axios 8 for 2018 races suggests that Democrats are still riding a blue wave — but not strong enough to help them win all the races that looked within their reach earlier in the cycle.
Why it matters: We selected the Axios 8 to include not just high-profile races, but ones that would only be competitive if the blue wave is massive. The House is definitely in play, but Republicans don't have to worry about all the races they were sweating before.
President Trump, during an interview with Fox News' Laura Ingraham on Monday, said that his administration plans to build "tent cities" to hold immigrants who have entered the U.S., applied for asylum and are awaiting trial.
"If they apply for asylum, we are going to hold them ... We are going to build tent cities. We're going to put tents up all over the place. We're not going to build structures and ... spend all of these of hundreds of millions of dollars. We are going to have tents, they are going to be very nice, and they are going to wait. And if they don't get asylum, they get out."
