Trump vows to end birthright citizenship, outlines immigration crackdown

President-elect Trump pledges to take executive action on immigration reform.

United States President-elect Donald Trump has unveiled ambitious plans to deport millions of immigrants living in the country without legal status and to end birthright citizenship.

In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press aired Sunday, Trump said he would declare illegal immigration a national emergency upon taking office on January 20.

“I think you have to do it. It’s a very tough thing to do. You know, you have rules, regulations, laws,” Trump stated, reiterating his commitment to removing all unauthorised immigrants over his four-year term.

As of January 2022, over 11 million people were estimated to be in the U.S. without legal status, a figure likely higher today, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

While emphasising his hardline stance, Trump signalled a willingness to negotiate protections for "Dreamers," immigrants brought to the US as children.

His previous attempt to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme was blocked by the Supreme Court during his first term.

On his first day in office, Trump plans to issue an executive order to end birthright citizenship. The policy, rooted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and upheld by an 1898 Supreme Court decision, grants citizenship to anyone born on US soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Trump acknowledged potential legal hurdles, suggesting a constitutional amendment might be required.

“We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it” he added.

Implementing these measures would demand extensive financial resources. The American Immigration Council estimates the cost of deporting all unauthorised immigrants at $88 billion annually. Trump’s team, including incoming border czar Tom Homan, has urged Congress to approve significant funding increases for enforcement efforts.

Trump also reaffirmed his commitment to deporting undocumented immigrants, including those with U.S. citizen family members, adding, “The only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”

The U.S. immigration system already faces a backlog of 3.7 million court cases, and analysts predict that under Trump’s mass deportation plan, it could take as long as 16 years to clear the backlog—up from the current four years at the present pace, according to Axios.

The plan would require significant infrastructure investments, including a vast expansion of detention centres nationwide, likely at a cost of $150 billion to $350 billion, experts say.