Washington:
Elaborating on his proposals for tough policy changes, Indian-American presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has said in his second Republican presidential debate that he would support ending birthright rights for children of illegal immigrants in the US.
At the second Republican debate of the 2024 election cycle, held Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, Mr. Ramaswamy shared the stage with six other candidates, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley. .
When asked “what legal basis” he would use to deport undocumented immigrants and their American-born children, Vivek Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, revived a 2015 proposal to uphold the then-candidate’s birthright end Donald Trump. Washington Post Wednesday.
The first part of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside. “
While most agree with the long-held tradition of granting citizenship to those born on U.S. soil, some legal scholars argue that the phrase “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” appears to give the government some leeway to limit the right , just as other legal scholars do. constitutional principles may be limited, the report said.
Therefore, he argued, children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States should not be granted citizenship because their parents were “breaking the law” to be in the country.
Vivek Ramaswamy, 38, also supported his opponents on stage and acknowledged other measures such as the militarization of the southern border, defunding “sanctuary cities” and an end to foreign aid to Mexico and Central America.
He said he would go “a step further” by ending “birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants in this country.” A second-generation Indian-American, Mr Ramaswamy, had earlier criticized the H-1B visa programme, saying the current ‘lottery’ system should be ‘stripped’ and replaced with a ‘meritocratic’, skills-based immigration program that meets the needs of the population. The United States.
Highly sought after among Indian IT professionals, the H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialized occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.
His stance on H-1B visas is also reminiscent of the 2016 Trump campaign, when then-candidate Donald Trump, who has also hired a number of foreign workers under H-1B visas for his companies, previously took a tough stance against these foreign workers. he later softened his rhetoric.
It should be noted that Ramaswamy himself has used the H-1B visa program 29 times.
According to Politico, from 2018 through 2023, US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 29 applications for Vivek Ramaswamy’s former company, Roivant Sciences, to hire workers under H-1B visas.
Mr. Ramaswamy, who was addressed by Time Magazine as “Trump’s heir apparent,” has received quite a bit of attention after his first Republican presidential primary debate on August 23.
The first poll after the debate showed that 28 percent of the 504 respondents said Ramaswamy was the best performer.
According to US media reports, Mr Ramaswamy’s tough proposals have helped him stand out in the crowded primary field.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)