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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congressman Henry Cuellar (TX-28) released the following statement regarding President Trump’s claim to issue an executive order and terminate the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship:

“The President has announced that he will use an executive order to rescind the constitutionally protected right that grants U.S. citizenship to anybody born on U.S. soil— this would be clearly unconstitutional. In order to void a 150-year-old law, the President would require Congress to limit birthright citizenship, either via statute, or by overriding both the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) and the 14^th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause through an amendment to the Constitution.

Furthermore, the U.S. currently stands alongside 30 other countries around the world, including Canada, Mexico, and Argentina, that have birthright citizenship laws. I urge President Trump to work with Congress in a bipartisan fashion to find long-term solutions that address faults in our immigration system— not threaten unconstitutional, unilateral executive action. I additionally ask that this matter not be caught in a legal fight that would distract us from addressing issues at the border in an effective and practical manner.”

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