NATIONWIDE — President Donald Trump reportedly wants to use an executive order to revoke the constitutional right of citizenship to babies born in the U.S. to noncitizens.
- Report: President Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship
- Axios says Trump wants to use executive order to go around Congress
- 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on US soil
The executive order is expected to be challenged, as Congress is the branch of government that can amend the U.S. Constitution.
"It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," he said during an interview on the show Axios on HBO, adding that he has run the idea by his counsel. "You can definitely do it with an act of Congress. But now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order."
Trump said White House lawyers are still reviewing the idea.
The president's plans are expected to cause a political uproar. The 14th Amendment guarantees that any child born in the U.S. is an American citizen, regardless of the parents' citizenship status.
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside," the 14th Amendment says.
Trump said America is the only country that grants birthright citizenship — which is false.
"We're the only country in the world where a person comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years with all of those benefits," he said.
Scores of other countries, such as Canada and Mexico, offer birthright citizenship.
The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this story.