Trump distracts us from pipe bombs and synagogue shootings

Donald Trump says he will change the operation of the 14th Amendment by executive order.  

It also changes the subject back to immigration, and the frame he likes: Trump versus foreign parasites.

His proposal is going nowhere.  He knows that. 

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

                                                      U.S. Constitution, 14th Amendment, 1868

The 14th Amendment has a history.

Donald Trump changes the subject

America's first Congress passed the Nationalization Act of 1790, which restricted citizenship to "any alien, being a free white person" who had been in the country for two years. In some states about half the residents were black slaves.They were counted as 3/5 for purposes of representation, but were not citizens although the status of free blacks was in dispute. The Supreme Court thought to settle the matter with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which said that no one whose ancestors were imported to the US as slaves were citizens or could be citizens. 

That set the path to civil war. 

In victory, Republican majorities in Congress were motivated to end slavery, and reverse Deed Scott. They passed an amendment with a clear, bright line southern states couldn't finagle. If you are born in the US you are a citizen, whether the southern states liked it or not. Ratification of the 14th Amendment was a condition for southern states to re-enter the union.

"Subject to the jurisdiction thereof" was intended to exempt children born of foreign diplomats, who had diplomatic immunity and therefore subject to the laws of the foreign country, and Native Americans on reservations who the government treated as sovereign and likewise beyond the reach of federal laws.

Donald Trump made a bold move, to end the common sense meaning of the first sentence of the Amendment. Can he do that?

No.

Fox: Immigrants are welfare cheats.

But there is a kerfuffle, and from Trump's political point of view, the more kerfuffle the better. Paul Ryan immediately expressed doubts it could be done by executive order but said it was an idea worth talking about. Lindsay Graham praised it extravagantly. Fox News loves it. Conservative AM talk radio is a-buzz.

Stop those lazy, cheating immigrants from getting onto our gravy train! This is a much better subject for Trump than the stickers on the pipe bomber's van. 

Trump declares children born in America become lifetime burdens, not productive fellow-citizens. It feeds the resentment mood and the immigrant-as-parasite meme. Trump said, "The baby is essentially a citizen of the United States for 85 years, with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end."

The more extreme Trump's assertion, including him saying he can do it by executive order,  the better for Trump. It has legal scholars looking at it. Experts and cautious people say "no." Wise and judicious people shake their heads.

Trump does not need the result. He needs the discussion. The discussion positions Trump exactly where he wants to be, as the Decisive and Strong Man of Action attempting to defend the good people of America from dangerous and burdensome foreign parasites, against the bookish critics and do-gooders on the left. 

Trump likes that frame. So does his base of voters.