President Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE has pledged to fix our broken immigration system with his most decisive action yet to close the “anchor baby” loophole. There are an estimated 12 million illegal aliens living in the United States. A study by Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found there could even be as many as 22 million illegal aliens here. In 2014, there were 300,000 babies born to illegal aliens in the United States. This is 10 times as many as in the early 1980s and twice as many as all the children born in the six states that comprise New England. In Los Angeles alone, illegal aliens give birth to more children than all of the citizens in South Carolina. More than half of these births are paid for by taxpayers.

Meanwhile, unknown thousands of wealthy Chinese families are engaging in “birth tourism” by taking advantage of tourist visas, visiting “maternity hotels” in California and our Pacific territories to give birth, and then heading back home with their newborn children. This is a practice that resulted in an estimated 60,000 births in our country in 2014. Absurdly, every one of these children automatically becomes a United States citizen because the 14th Amendment, which has never been favorably ruled on by the Supreme Court, has been misinterpreted. This makes America one of the few countries in the world that guarantees citizenship to the children of illegal or nonresident aliens born within its borders.

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As my father astutely noted, the 14th Amendment was never intended to create this instant citizenship racket. The citizenship clause was ratified in order to reverse the infamous Supreme Court ruling on Dred Scott and ensure that states could not deny citizenship to former slaves. It was decidedly not intended to allow illegal aliens and birth tourists to make a run around our immigration laws. This accidental policy of universal birthright citizenship is one of the most powerful magnets driving lawless migration to the United States, fueling human tragedy along our southern border and unsustainable welfare obligations.

The thousands of migrants, some of them violent criminals, in the caravans marching toward our border under their flags are just the most recent visible outgrowth of this phenomenon. These migrants have shot and attacked Mexican police officers, even after being offered asylum in that country, and now they are headed here. Unless we take action, there will be more caravans next year and each year after that. Many of the migrants traveling in the caravans will have children after crossing the border, perhaps in the months or years that they spend waiting for a deportation hearing. All of those children will be United States citizens, adding to the chain migration problem and making it even worse.

Unfortunately, Democrats have been exacerbating this mess for years. With his unconstitutional “Deferred Action for Parents of Americans” executive order, Barack Obama Barack Hussein ObamaMichelle Obama and Jennifer Lopez exchange Ginsburg memories Pence defends Trump's 'obligation' to nominate new Supreme Court justice The militia menace MORE enhanced the “anchor baby” incentive, promising illegal aliens they could effectively avoid deportation if they just have kids in the United States. In Congress, Democrats have proposed amnesty after amnesty. The once liberal fringe now controls the party with an iron fist and even embraces de facto open borders. They demand that we abolish ICE and abandon building the wall, which would leave us defenseless to drug cartels, human traffickers, and gangs like MS-13.

Liberals are calling the insistence of my father to address this situation “unconstitutional” and worse. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just 25 years ago, even Democrats dealt with the same problem and called for the federal government to come up with solutions. In 1993, Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidThe Supreme Court vacancy — yet another congressional food fight Trump seeks to turn around campaign with Supreme Court fight On The Trail: Battle over Ginsburg replacement threatens to break Senate MORE pushed a bill to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens. Despite his inaccurate statement that his wife “immediately” set him straight, the future Senate majority leader advocated the same policy for years afterward. Dianne Feinstein Dianne Emiel FeinsteinBiden leads Trump by 12 points among Catholic voters: poll Names to watch as Trump picks Ginsburg replacement on Supreme Court McConnell says Trump nominee to replace Ginsburg will get Senate vote MORE, another leading Democrat in the Senate, was no less concerned about the “anchor baby” crisis as a lawmaker. In 1994, she called the children of illegal aliens, in particular the medical costs they impose on taxpayers, a “very real” problem.

When the Democrats today say that they want just, fair, and humane solutions to our immigration problem, they must not be talking about the millions of people who are waiting in line to come into our country legally. There is nothing just about letting rich foreigners buy the right for their kids to vote in the United States for the price of a plane ticket and hotel room. There is nothing fair about promising citizenship for the children of those who violate our immigration laws while making legal immigrants wait years to receive their papers. There is nothing humane about actively encouraging the misery, violence, and squalor of the caravans.

By eliminating birthright citizenship, Donald Trump will take us one huge step closer to truly fixing our broken immigration system and saving America from the deadly and costly open borders agenda pushed by the Democrats. As a businessman, my father is able to find a solution to every problem, and on the issue of birthright citizenship, he is the one guy who has the guts to address it and the determination to resolve it.