In the midst of the flood of executive orders issued by the White House on January 20, one is particularly misplaced, both in legal and political terms: the order for children born in USA by mothers of immigrants who had no residence permit. According to the order, these children will not automatically receive American citizenship.

The executive order was immediately disputed in court, where a federal judge, John C. Coughenour, declared it as “blatant unconstitutional”. Two more insurance measures followed last week.

“All people,” says the 14th amendment, “born or naturalized in the United States and are subject to their jurisdiction, are citizens of the United States.” Administration lawyers argue that the phrase “subject to its jurisdiction” does not apply to immigrant children who arrived in the US either illegally or visa.

THE Trump It often uses the word “invaders” when referring to people entering the country, either illegally or through the legal asylum process. But the declaration of emergency at the border does not give him the power to bypass the Constitution.

OR 14th modification It was approved after the Civil War to eliminate one of the allegations that helped to accelerate it: the disgusting ruling of the Supreme Court of 1857 by Drednd Scott, according to which even free blacks were not and could not be citizens. The decision, if it had in force, would create a permanent submission.

The new executive decree could turn about 150,000 children a year into state -of -the -arts and second -class people who are deprived of rights and are subject to deportation – possibly in a country they have never even visited.

The president’s insistence that the US is the “only country in the world” that provides nationality with the right by birth is completely wrong. Most countries in the western hemisphere do so. In essence: No country has gained greater benefits than the US nationality.

The immigrants They have made America great. Some have come to improve their own prospects in life. More have come to create opportunities for their children. And despite the discrimination they have often faced, they have enriched the US economically and culturally beyond any measure.

It is true that the previous government did a bad job in border policing. Enhanced enforcement is a necessity. But in the end, the best way to prevent people who dream of better lives than to pass illegally in the US and concentrating on the border to seek asylum, is not to punish their children. It is to correct the legal immigration system to create more opportunities for law -abiding.

The number of visas granted annually has remained limited to about 675,000 since 1990, although the economy has doubled in size since then – and even more businesses cannot find the employees needed to grow. Today, the number of people looking for work remains well below about 8 million jobs.

No matter how many deportations the government ordered or how many fences they build, immigrants will still come to the US. Such is the magnetic power of the American dream. Better to see it as an opportunity than as a threat.

Of David Fickling