Jennifer Taub is a professor at Vermont Law School. The views expressed here are solely hers. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) For most of us, the arrival of a baby into the world brings joy and hope. The newborn cries out for sustenance as family, friends and community gather around to guide and educate the child from fragile dependency into adulthood.

Jennifer Taub

Many of us experience similar feelings of warm welcome toward the children of complete strangers, including immigrants. This sentiment is also sensible. Two recent studies show that the initial costs of educating new immigrant children are far offset by the economic contributions they will make as adults.

But President Donald Trump is not like most of us. In his latest effort to stir up fear and loathing to motivate his diminishing base one week before a national election, the President has positioned newborns not as a source for society's renewal but as threats.

The President's contempt for new life and young families was on display Tuesday morning when he announced his planned executive order to end birthright citizenship : the legal right to citizenship for anyone born within the United States even to parents who are not US citizens. More than 30 countries have birthright citizenship, yet the President claimed we were the only one. "We're the only country in the world where a person comes in and has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the United States ... with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. And it has to end."

His proposal is contrary to both American law and long-standing ethical and religious traditions in this country.

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