President Donald Trump said Speaker Paul Ryan, who is retiring, should be more focused on the election than on correcting his comments about birthright citizenship. | Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images White House Trump smacks Ryan for questioning his birthright citizenship plan The president also claimed that the Supreme Court will settle the treatment of babies of undocumented immigrants.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday shot back at House Speaker Paul Ryan for criticizing his proposal to upend birthright citizenship, saying Ryan should be paying attention to the midterm elections instead.

"Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about! Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!" Trump tweeted.


Ryan had told Kentucky talk radio station WVLK on Tuesday that the president "obviously cannot do that," joining a bevy of constitutional scholars who challenged Trump on using an executive order to eliminate birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants on U.S. soil. Ryan is not running for reelection in this year's midterms.

Trump argued that a constitutional amendment was unnecessary to eliminate birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. He told reporters Wednesday afternoon as he was leaving the White House for the campaign trail that he could enact the change through an executive order or an act of Congress, which he would prefer because "that's permanent."

Trump cited President Barack Obama‘s getting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program passed by executive order as evidence that he could change birthright citizenship law through the same method.

Morning Shift newsletter Get the latest on employment and immigration, every weekday morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

"If he could do DACA, we can do this by executive order," he said.

Legal experts from both sides of the aisle almost universally agree that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to the children of foreign nationals born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional provision in the late 19th century, and almost all legal scholars agree it cannot be overturned with merely an executive order.

On Wednesday night, at a campaign rally in Florida, Trump called birthright citizenship a “crazy policy,“ even though it is a constitutional guarantee. He also claimed birthright citizenship cost U.S. taxpayers “billions of dollars“ a year, though it's unclear how he reached such a number.

The president's Wednesday-afternoon tweet and comments from the White House followed a series of tweets earlier in the day claiming that the provision granting birthright citizenship to the children of foreign citizens does not apply to the children of undocumented immigrants because citizenship can be granted only to subjects of U.S. jurisdiction.

"So-called Birthright Citizenship, which costs our Country billions of dollars and is very unfair to our citizens, will be ended one way or the other. It is not covered by the 14th Amendment because of the words 'subject to the jurisdiction thereof.' Many legal scholars agree....." Trump wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning.

In a follow-up tweet, Trump said the matter would be taken to the Supreme Court.

"....Harry Reid was right in 1993, before he and the Democrats went insane and started with the Open Borders (which brings massive Crime) 'stuff.' Don’t forget the nasty term Anchor Babies. I will keep our Country safe. This case will be settled by the United States Supreme Court!" he wrote.

Trump was referencing a comment retired Sen. Harry Reid made in 1993 proposing to eliminate birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants' children. Reid said at the time "no sane country" would offer a "reward for being an illegal immigrant." Reid disavowed the comment and said Wednesday his position then was a mistake, and that Trump was "profoundly wrong" in his remarks.

The term "anchor babies" refers to the idea that undocumented immigrants give birth to children in the United States with the goal of acquiring U.S. citizenship for the rest of the family. The term is viewed by immigrants rights activists as offensive.

Trump said in an Axios interview released Tuesday that he disapproved of granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants' children who were born on U.S. soil. He erroneously said that no other country allows that kind of birthright citizenship. Actually, more than 30 do. Trump's claims were quickly met with deep skepticism from constitutional scholars and his own party.

Despite several constitutional scholars agreeing an executive order would be met with nearly immediate legal challenges, the Trump administration has expressed confidence that such an order would eventually make its way to the Supreme Court.

The question of citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to foreign parents has already come before the Supreme Court. In the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the court ruled that all children born in the U.S. are eligible to claim citizenship.

The 14th Amendment states: "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."

The line "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" often caters to the children of diplomats who do not receive automatic citizenship if they are born in the U.S. But the president insinuated on Twitter on Wednesday that the exception extends to undocumented immigrants because they are not legally under U.S. jurisdiction.

Though crossing the border without proper documentation and overstaying visas are crimes, undocumented immigrants are still subject to U.S. laws and law enforcement once in the country.