Is it just me or does Trump want to racially profile us at birth? Seems like it. | Opinion
The Trump administration couldn't answer a simple question on how they expect to know which babies are citizens. I bet I can guess.
People of color are used to being racially profiled. Take it from me.
I've been accused of stealing from stores. I've been accused of being a suspect in a crime. I've even been accused of being in the country illegally by law enforcement officers.
Hell, I've even had cops point their guns at me during routine traffic stops, which once included me riding a bicycle home after a work shift.
All of that just because I'm Latino. It happens so often that I don't even flinch anymore. But the Trump administration is currently asking for permission to do something I honestly never really imagined could happen.
Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow our government to racially profile at birth by ultimately allowing the executive order that eliminates birthright citizenship.
I know, I know, I'm being hyperbolic, right, Republicans? I'm trying to stir up fear to convince the liberals that Trump is a racist, right, MAGA?
The Trump administration couldn't say how they'll know which babies are citizens
Okay, so let's review.
How do you think Trump and his Republican enablers expect to enforce the removal of birthright citizenship from the U.S. Constitution? I'm not talking about the legal procedure. I'm not naive enough to see how this administration works and expect Republicans to care about procedure or even, honestly, the Constitution.
I'm talking about actually making sure that babies born in America to undocumented immigrants aren't given citizenship.
You know what? I'll just let Justice Brett Kavanaugh ask the questions. This is a short transcript of Kavanaugh asking U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer how the Trump administration expects to know which babies are citizens if the executive order were to go into effect.
Kavanaugh: "What do hospitals do with a newborn? What do states do with a newborn?"Sauer: "I don't think they do anything different. What the executive order says in section 2 is that federal officials do not accept documents that have the wrong designation of citizenship from people who are subject to the executive order."Kavanaugh: "How are they going to know that?"Sauer: "The states can continue to ... The federal officials will have to figure that out."Kavanaugh: "How?"Sauer: "So, uh, you could imagine a number of ways that the federal officials could..."Kavanaugh: "Such as?"Sauer: "Such as, they could require a showing of, you know, documentation showing legal presence in the country. For a temporary visitor, for example, they could see whether they're on a B-1 visa, which would exclude the kind of birthright citizenship in that context."Kavanaugh: "For all the newborns? Is that how it's going to work?"Sauer: "Again, we don't know because the agencies were never given the opportunity to formulate the guidance."
Kavanaugh is asking all the right questions about birthright citizenship
In case you don't see it or hear it, the "how" is very loud in that exchange. Since the Trump administration couldn't answer that question, Justice Kavanaugh, I will. Real quick, though: they won't do it for all the newborns.
They're not going to fund the necessary infrastructure to check every single baby born in this country. It's just not feasible. There are nearly 3.6 million babies born in America. As of now, that is 3.6 million citizens.
If Republicans get their way, how many of those won't be citizens anymore? How will they know?
According to the March of Dimes, of all the live births between 2021 and 2023, 50% were white. Those babies would be citizens immediately, right, Republicans? I can tell you those families won't be happy being asked if they're citizens because it's an insane question to ask about a baby. I know I would have flown off the handle if my son, born to a white mother, was immediately subject to that kind of review.
What about the rest? Kavanaugh was specifically asking about all babies, to his credit. He was inquiring if the government had thought about how they would sort out which babies could stay and which couldn't. He was asking if Trump, in all his wisdom, had even considered the government-backed procedure for separating the American babies from the others.
Kavanaugh didn't get an answer. Instead, he was told that the administration was never officially allowed to begin figuring that out.
But I know better. I know the government won't worry about that 50%. I know the government would only be tagging and monitoring the rest of the babies. I know that the Republican government that separated Mexican children from their families during Trump's first administration and is currently gleefully sending anybody they want to places like El Salvador can't be bothered to realize the scope of the inhumanity it's sewing into our government.
I know that what Trump and his Republican enablers want is for the rest of those babies to be profiled at birth. Justice Kavanaugh, that's how.
Louie Villalobos is Gannett's director of opinion. You can find brushing up on his Spanish for when Trump tries to strip citizenship from the rest of us.