BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS - NOVEMBER 19: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump attends a viewing of the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket on November 19, 2024 in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX’s billionaire owner, Elon Musk, a Trump confidante, has been tapped to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency alongside former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

‘You keep them together’: Trump confirms plans to deport children of undocumented parents

Birthright citizenship means you have citizenship of where you were born despite the citizenship status of their parents. It means that if their parents were to be deported, they can still retain citizenship in the United States. Donald Trump is threatening that.

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Trump has been very vocal in his stance that anyone in the country illegally will be deported but, in the past, their children who were born in the US were legally citizens. Now, he’s saying those children will always be deported as a way of keeping the family together. That’s not really how citizenship works.

During an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump clarified his plan. “I don’t want to be breaking up families,” Trump said. “The only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” This gets complicated when the children in question never were “from” where Trump wants to send them back to. When asked about the children who are here legally, Trump went on to talk about his belief on keeping the family together.

“What are you going to do if they want to stay with the father? We have to have rules and regulations. You can always find something out like ‘This doesn’t work, that doesn’t work.’ I’ll tell you what’s going to be horrible: When we take a wonderful young woman who’s with a criminal and they show the woman and she could stay by the law but they show the woman being taken out,” Trump said. “Or they want her out and your cameras are focused on her as she’s crying as she’s being taken out of our country and then the public turns against us. But we have to do our job.”

Don’t know what this woman has to do with this.

He’s just spewing nonsense

The idea that a citizen of the United States could be deported because the President wills it is a terrifying thought. The MAGA party and the Right-Wing base and their anger towards immigrants has always been anti-American. We were the country founded on freedom, on the American dream, a country of immigrants. MAGA fans think that they can control who that applies to.

This latest rhetoric sets a terrifying precedent. What is stopping Trump from “deporting” anyone who opposes him? If he can deport citizens of the United States, what is stopping him from just taking over this country and saying who he deserves to live here and why? What he described at the end of the question had nothing to do with the children of undocumented immigrants. He was just making up a situation.

Everything about this just feels un-American to me. I am a second generation citizen. My grandparents were immigrants. They came here to make a better life for their families and that’s what this country is supposed to be about. Trump’s warped and racist views on immigrants is pushing a narrative that has never BEEN American. And it is gross.


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Rachel Leishman
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Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.