CNN’s Elie Honig Disputes ‘Misperception’ Of Illegal Immigrants Getting ‘Automatic’ Status Over Child’s Citizenship

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig disputed the “misperception” Monday that illegal immigrants will automatically receive legal status if their children are U.S. citizens.

Three American children ages 2, 4 and 7 joined their mothers, who entered the U.S. illegally, as President Donald Trump’s administration deported them to Honduras. While addressing the legality of deporting U.S. citizens’ parents, Honig said that the law does not automatically grant an illegal immigrant with legal status or citizenship through their child.

“There is a very common misperception here that has led to this derogatory term of what some call anchor babies. That is not the way the law works. It is the law that if a child is born in the United States, he or she automatically becomes a citizen. That’s what we call birthright citizenship,” Honig said. “But it is not the law that the parent therefore becomes a citizen or receives any legal status [such as] green card, legal permanent resident, anything like that. There may be circumstances where if a parent is trying to get legal permanent residence status or citizenship status, it might help the case to say that there’s a baby born here.”

“But none of that is automatic, it is a wide misperception,” Honig continued.

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The Trump administration denied all accusations that they deported the children, stating that the families made the personal decision for the children to accompany their mothers to Honduras. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and border czar Tom Homan both said that the media would accuse them of family separation if the children had remained in the U.S., as they have a right to do.

Deporting U.S. citizens is a direct violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees that any U.S.-born person cannot get their citizenship revoked. Several outlets, including The Associated Press, The Washington Post, The Guardian and NPR all published headlines stating that the administration deported the U.S. citizens.

Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office, ending birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants with only temporary legal status, which got blocked by a federal judge. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to deliberate the issue on May 15.

Honig predicted that the high court will “reject” the administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.