Could Trump End Birthright Citizenship?

Greetings, Meteor readers,

My child recently learned the words to “Jingle Bells,” and while she cannot fully pronounce all of them, I’ve now heard that song more times than “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Send earmuffs.

In today’s newsletter, we take a look at the latest news on what’s ahead for migrants. Plus, actress and playwright Danai Gurira on the backlash to women’s rights on the African continent.

Changing the station,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

A semblance of a plan: When the news broke that Donald Trump had won re-election, I reached out to my mentor, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, and asked, “Did they tell you what time your group is getting deported? I’m in group C.” We laughed. After all, if the end is nigh, you cannot spend all your time suffering about suffering.

But beneath the jokes, the memes, and the exhaustion, there is still a big question: Can Trump do all the things he wants to do?

When it comes to immigration, it certainly seems like he’s going to try—and fast. Over the weekend in a “Meet the Press” interview, Trump reaffirmed his commitment to mass deportation, stating he would “absolutely” end birthright citizenship. “I don’t want to be breaking up families,” he said. (Really?) “So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back, even kids who are here legally.”

Because of the 14th Amendment—which does a few things including granting citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil—Trump cannot make good on his threat by himself, but that doesn’t mean it’s an impossibility. As reporter Isabela Dias explains in Mother Jones, Trump and his allies could “resort to the far-fetched claim that large migrant flows to the US-Mexico border constitute an ‘invasion’ of the United States and, therefore, the children of unauthorized immigrants should be excluded from the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship.”

That idea might seem implausible, especially when even Republicans are divided on mass deportation (as demonstrated by today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings). But we are living in implausible times. If the president thinks the 14th Amendment is up for debate—and let me remind you that the amendment’s equal protection clause is literally being debated before SCOTUS—there’s no telling how far he’ll go to get his way. And when the “them” he’s targeting starts to look like everyone, what will be the line in the sand?

AND:

• Poet Nikki Giovanni has died at the age of 81 after a yearslong battle with cancer. She was an unmatched wordsmith and a light on this earth. We honor her incredible work and remember the experience of filming the self-described “little old lady” with a tattoo that said “Thug Life” reading her poem “VOTE.”

• Rapper and husband of Beyoncé, Shawn Carter, aka Jay-Z, has been accused of rape in a civil lawsuit connected to the numerous allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs. The suit alleges that Carter and Combs both drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl at a party in 2000. Carter has denied any wrongdoing, writing in a statement, “Whomever would commit such a crime against a minor should be locked away, would you not agree” before calling the lawyer representing the victim an “ambulance chaser.” Carter has filed a motion to either dismiss the anonymous charge or have the accuser’s name be made public. Meanwhile, in the court of public opinion, a number of people are pointing out that Carter was 30 when he started dating a certain teenage singer.

• Tokyo is rolling out a four-day work week for government employees starting next year, and get a load of the reason: Starting in April, workers will have Fridays off so they have more time for procreative sex. Seriously. Birth rates across Japan have been so bad that “local governments have introduced various measures to improve working conditions so people have more time for sex,” Vice reports. What a time!

• The Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark has been named Time’s Athlete of the Year. In an interview, she reflected on her rookie year in the WNBA and her responsibility to the women’s game going forward. “People are invested in the game, they love the game, and that’s what makes it so fun for me,” she told Time. “These people aren’t supporting women’s sports to check a box. It’s going to be the new normal.”

• Today is the final day of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence. As a reminder of what’s at stake for women and girls the world over, we revisit our Free Future conversation with Danai Gurira, activist and UN Goodwill Ambassador, and Niemat Ahmadi, president of the Darfur Women Action Group. Both spoke about the specific targeting of women in the African continent by warring militant groups and how, since international aid was slow to arrive, “[women] became frontline human rights defenders.” Their work shows the world that even in conflict zones, all darkness is temporary—or can be. (Read more from the Ford Foundation’s Free Future program here.)

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