Corey Lewandowski, senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump, said Monday on Newsmax that ending birthright citizenship presents a "very interesting legal question."
Trump has said that birthright citizenship, guaranteed to the American-born child of an illegal immigrant by the Constitution's 14th Amendment, "absolutely" must end.
"Donald Trump has said that once you step one foot into this country, if you have a baby here, that person, by the Constitution, is an American citizen," Lewandowski told "National Report." "There are some real concerns about that.
"We know that people come to this country just to have their children here. We also know that we've got tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, of convicted criminals in this country that have to be deported. We know that we've got murderers and rapists and people who've been let in over the last few years who Donald Trump's priority is going to be to first seal the border, and that only legal immigrants get to come in, and then to deport the people who shouldn't be here legally."
Lewandowski said it's a legal matter.
"So, listen, the open question of can this be done through executive action or does a federal law need to be passed is one that the attorneys will ultimately decide, but, that being said, we have to have a system in place where legal immigrants are given the priority and those who are in the country illegally will be shipped out," he said. "If they want to stay with their families, the president said, that's OK. That's a decision you will make. But if you're in this country illegally and you've been a criminal or a convicted felon, we're going to get you out of this country very quickly."
Lewandowski also discussed the president-elect's plan to pardon those serving prison sentences for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol Building.
"This is Donald Trump fulfilling the campaign promises that he made to the American people," he said. "Listen, what we have seen from the people who were the nonviolent offenders on Jan. 6 is that there's been a two-tier justice system in this country for far too long.
"We didn't see the rioters who took place in the BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement have to spend three or four years in jail. Those who threw Molotov cocktails at police departments and burned substations around the country, had these massive riots all over, were treated very differently and we know, and your viewers remember this, Vice President [Kamala] Harris and her team were actually paying to get those people out of jail because by and large, they were in cities that condone or at least accept violence against police officers."
"As it relates to Jan. 6, the president has said if these are nonviolent individuals and they're still in jail, their cases will be reviewed immediately and potentially a pardon for them on day one for people who were trying to exercise some of their free speech," Lewandowski added.
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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