Vivek Ramaswamy vows to end “birthright citizenship” for immigrants in US

WASHINGTON: Indian-American entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reiterated a 2015 proposal by former President Donald Trump of ending the birthright citizenship in the US, The Washinton Post reported on Thursday.

Ramaswamy was asked by Univision host Ilia Calderón “what legal premise” he would use to expel undocumented immigrants and their American-born children from the country.

He began by noting that his opponents onstage “are on the right side of this issue” by supporting the militarization of the southern border, defunding “sanctuary cities,” and an end to foreign aid to Mexico and Central America, but the candidate said he would go a “step further” by ending “birthright citizenship for the kids of illegal immigrants in this country.”

Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, broke into an anti-immigrant argument by saying that the 14th Amendment — which guarantees birthright citizenship to most people born in the United States — says “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the laws and jurisdiction thereof, are citizens,” as per The Washington Post reported.

He further argued that the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be granted citizenship, because their parents “broke of law” to be in the country.

“As the father of two sons, it is hard for me to look them in the eye and say, ‘You have to follow the law,’ when our own government fails to follow its own laws,” The Post quoted Ramaswamy as saying.

Notably, birthright citizenship is a common target of Republican candidates on the campaign trail. In 2015, Trump proposed that Congress should end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants in the United States.

In 2018, Donald Trump said he planned to issue an executive order that would end the automatic grant of citizenship to those born in this country to noncitizens, however, that order never came to fruition, the Washington post reported.

Earlier, in another bombshell announcement ahead of the presidential polls, Ramaswamy had vowed to end the H-1B visa program if elected to power, US-based POLITICO reported.

Terming the H-1B Visa as “indentured servitude”, Ramaswamy called it to replace the “lottery system” for an “actual meritocratic admission”, adding that the US needs to eliminate chain-based migration.

“The lottery system needs to be replaced by actual meritocratic admission. It’s a form of indentured servitude that only accrues to the benefit of the company that sponsored an H-1B immigrant. I’ll gut it,” Ramaswamy said in a statement to POLITICO.

Notably, H-1B is a non-immigrant visa, which is highly sought after including in India. This allows US companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require some technical expertise. Also, these visas are highly sought after, and the demand for these workers in the US has only increased with time.

For fiscal year 2021, US businesses submitted 7,80,884 applications for just 85,000 available slots, which was a jump of more than 60 per cent, according to POLITICO.

It is pertinent to note that Ramaswamy has himself used the H-1B system in the past to hire high-skilled foreign workers for the pharma company that built much of his wealth, as per POLITICO.

The Indian American entrepreneur had shot up sharply in GOP primary polls, standing tied with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at the second position. However, both candidates lag hugely behind former President Donald Trump who leads with 56 per cent, as per The Hill.

In another poll by RealClearPolitics, Trump is far out in front of the 2024 GOP race with 53.6 per cent support, followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 13.5 per cent, and Ramaswamy at 7.3 per cent, New York Post reported.

The next US presidential election is scheduled for November 5, 2024.