Adams & Trump–hyper-focus on immigrants & birthright citizenship–Jan 2025

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large
So, as well as wanting to launch a mass deportation of immigrants on January 20th, 2025, President-elect Donald Trump also wants to dismantle the 14th Amendment-protected birthright citizenship.

“Donald Trump’s promises to eliminate birthright citizenship and deport millions of Americans are only the latest in a long track record of supporting draconian immigration policies,” Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke told Our Time Press.

“There is no doubt in my mind that his administration will work to upend the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and strip away the fundamental rights of those born within the United States to undocumented families. The thought of deporting entire families, some of whom may have mixed immigration statuses, is cruel and inhumane.”

The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs states that “According to the 2020 Census, nearly 40 percent of New York City’s population are immigrants.” Brooklyn has a high population of African, Caribbean, Latino and European immigrants.

Congresswoman Clarke, the daughter of Jamaica-born former 40th district Councilwoman Una Clarke, continued, “Children within these families often aren’t accustomed to the countries their parents are from, which creates cultural and language barriers they would need to overcome just to survive within environments they’ve never encountered.”

In an interview this past Sunday with NBC host Kristen Welker, Trump doubled down on his immigrant mass deportation strategy. He also said that he would eliminate birthright citizenship.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he said. “We have to end it. It’s ridiculous.”
“Trump talks to people like he’s in a Trinidadian rum shop,” immigration attorney Brian Figeroux told Our Time Press. “Someone with his intelligence should be consulting his legal staff before he makes statements like these.

He knows, or at least he should know, that the principle of birthright citizenship in the United States is codified in the 14th Amendment, which 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.’”
NBC’s Welker asked Trump, “Can you get around the 14th Amendment with an executive action?”

“Well, we’re going to have to get a change. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people,” Trump said, “If we can, through executive action. We have to end it.”

Trinidadian-born, naturalized U.S. citizen Figeroux stated that the President-elect’s proposals have sparked intense debate over their legality, feasibility, and implications. “The 14th Amendment to the U.S. The Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents. Ending birthright citizenship via executive order faces significant constitutional hurdles. Constitutional amendments cannot be overridden by executive authority.

Courts would likely strike down such an order as unconstitutional,” said Figeroux.
With two immigrant wives of his own and four children from those unions, nonetheless, Trump has argued that birthright citizenship incentivizes unauthorized immigration and that the children of undocumented immigrants, often termed “anchor babies,” unfairly benefit from automatic citizenship.

Meanwhile, Trump’s planned mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants present logistical, ethical, and legal challenges. Figeroux challenged, “The Fifth Amendment guarantees due process rights to all persons in the U.S., including undocumented immigrants. Mass deportations would require individualized hearings, making rapid removal of millions legally unfeasible.”

The Brooklyn-based lawyer said, “There is a major judicial backlog. Immigration courts are already overwhelmed, with hundreds of thousands of pending cases. Expanding deportations would exacerbate these delays. Then there are issues of logistics and economic feasibility. Estimates suggest that deporting all undocumented immigrants could cost between $100 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) lack the resources to carry out mass deportations on such a scale.”

Meanwhile, New York Mayor Eric Adams said he wants to sit down and talk with newly-announced border czar Thomas Homan, who wants to mass deport all undocumented immigrants. Adams said that he supports the deportation of immigrants with criminal records. Americans, the Mayor declared have said, “We need to fix our immigration system. We need to secure our border.”

Proud ‘Jamerican’ Congresswoman Clarke added, “Our country was founded by immigrants who made the arduous journey in search of freedom, prosperity, and the hope of a promising future and a better way of life for their families. Immigrants contribute to the very fabric of our great nation.”

“This city is a city and nation of immigrants,’ Adams acknowledged. “They built our bridges. They’ve done all the things we needed in this city. And this is a sanctuary city.”
City & State said, “The Migration Policy Institute puts the ‘unauthorized’ population in New York as high as 835,000, while the Center for Migration Studies in July estimated that there are currently at least 470,000 undocumented immigrants in New York’s workforce. Another July report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that 676,000 undocumented immigrants are currently living in New York and contributing to the state’s economy.”

The Adams administration recently closed a dozen migrant shelters. Are people leaving voluntarily afraid of being caught up in a Trump deportation-focused dragnet?
Adams said, “The decrease in migrants and asylum seekers in our care dropped before the election…We were able to get a substantial number of people to take the next step in their journey…We were able to get thousands to go through TPS. We were able to get a substantial number of people to get their work authorization.”

With his paternal grandmother who came from Canada, working in the US as a nurse during the Great Influenza, Adams said that he recognized that “During the pandemic, undocumented workers were essential workers.”

“I don’t support any of Trump’s proposed policies around immigration,” District 35 New York City Council Member Crystal Hudson told Our Time Press. “Including any form of mass deportation or the amendment/elimination of birthright citizenship.”

Congresswoman Clarke concluded, “Mass deportations are not the solution. We must reform our broken immigration system and create pathways toward citizenship. The integrity of our democracy depends on it.