Former President Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and his main rival to achieve the Republican nomination for the White House in 2024, made tough promises on immigration on Tuesday in their campaign events to win the votes of the most conservative sector. Trump vowed to end the right to citizenship for children of immigrants born in the United States; DeSantis charged against sanctuary cities.
An order on his first day in the White House
"As part of my plan to secure the border, on the first day of my new term I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that, under the correct interpretation of the law, future children of illegal immigrants will not automatically receive U.S. citizenship," Trump said in a video recorded from his mansion in Palm Beach (Florida).
The former president intends to order federal agencies to require atleast one parent to be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their U.S.-born children to automatically become U.S. citizens.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to Announce Presidential Bid, Reports Say
May 31, 202300:27
Those who don't meet that requirement would not only not be granted automatic citizenship, but wouldnot be given "passports, Social Security numbers, or be eligible for certain taxpayer-funded welfare benefits," Trump said.
With that measure, Trump, one of the seven candidates for now to participate in the primaries to choose the Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential elections, intends to end, he said, with "an important incentive for illegal immigration."
"It will deter more immigrants from coming and encourage many of the foreigners that Joe Biden has allowed to enter our country illegally to return to their home countries," Trump said in reference to the Democratic president's immigration policies.
DeSantis campaigns in territory where he has a tough task facing clear Trump supporters
May 30, 202302:37
Trump announced that the executive order he would sign in January 2025 on his first day in the White House if voters give him a second term also targets "birth tourists."
"Tens of thousands of foreign nationals fraudulently enter the U.S. each year during the final weeks of their pregnancies for the sole purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for their children," Trump said in a statement.
"They come for millions and millions and millions. They come from psychiatric institutions, they come from prisons, prisoners, some of the toughest and meanest people you've ever seen," Trump said, providing no evidence that this is the case and even though it's hard to believe that's possible with strict U.S. visa rules.
Trump threatens to eliminate birthright citizenship if he becomes president again... but he can't really do it
May 30, 202300:22
In addition to Trump and DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley signed up to compete for the Republican nomination; former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; businessman Vivek Ramaswamy; and Senator Tim Scott; next week will see former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence, who served under Trump.
But Trump and DeSantis are the Republican candidates with the most support in the polls, although the first has a 30-point advantage over the second, according to the Efe news agency.
DeSantis Charges Sanctuary Cities
DeSantis, who has made irregular immigration one of his political workhorses, recently passed one of the toughest laws against the undocumented, which has sparked numerous protests before it takes effect on July 1.
The governor of Florida warned Tuesday in Iowa about the situation on the border with Mexico (which seems however normalized after the end of Title 42); charged against illegal immigration; and stressed its commitment to the "fight" against sanctuary cities (whose authorities decline to collaborate with federal authorities in the arrest of undocumented migrants).
"The border is collapsed. Millions of illegal immigrants come in, many criminals and terrorists and the drug and fentanyl cartels," DeSantis said on the first stop of his three-state tour that marks the formal start of his campaign for the 2024 GOP primary. None of these claims were backed up with data, nor is there any clear indication that they are true.
"We are a sovereign nation and our border must be respected," he told about 500 people in the auditorium of an evangelical Christian church in suburban Des Moines, where signs proclaimed a "Great American Comeback," his campaign slogan.
House to vote on Biden-McCarthy debt deal, even though not everyone is happy
May 31, 202301:25
In his first electoral act, lasting about an hour, DeSantis said that, if he reaches the White House, he will restore national sovereignty (although it has not been lost at any time) and declare the "national emergency for the border."
In addition, he said, he will hold Mexican drug cartels responsible for the deaths of Americans from the opioid crisis.
Attacked for months by Trump, DeSantis did not continue in Iowa the open hostilities against his former ally, whom he criticized last Wednesday, when he announced his candidacy in a bumpy talk with the American businessman Elon Musk on Twitter, which began with delay due to technical failures.
"The hackneyed dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant future. We have to look forward," DeSantis said, "we can't look back. We must have the courage to lead and the strength to win."
With information from Efe and The Associated Press.