I actually have no problem with changing our current 14th Amendment standard of birthright citizenship. I think it is reasonable that the children of people that did not arrive here by legal channels not be granted citizenship just because they are born here. This does incentivize illegal immigration, which should not be something we want. There are those in favor of it though because it's a source of cheap labor, or additional bodies to be counted in the census which will impact congressional districting, etc. Because of this reality, I expect there will always be certain populations of our country that feel the status quo is fine.
But if we're going to change the law, we need to do it through the proper process and not by executive fiat. Trump's birthright citizenship order is obviously in conflict with the 14th amendment and with decades of precedent. I don't care how his side tries to frame the argument, Trumps order will not be upheld. We should not want it to be upheld either if we are to ever get to true solutions on immigration.
Congress needs to step up and do the hard work to debate and compromise to reach the best solution we can even if it isn't perfect. We need to recognize that our economy requires a lot of immigrant labor and adjust our position to accommodate that. What we need, and what Congress has refused to do, is have complete immigration reform that addresses our labor needs and which is fair to as many people as possible. But everyone will have to give up something and that is not easy in today's extreme partisan environment.
I frankly don't think a lot is going to change in this area despite Trump's bluster. I don't think he's going to be able to deport even 1/3 of the # he has been talking about. It's too hard, it's too expensive, it's too ugly and too many business owners are going to be telling him they need the labor. He'll make some high profile deportations and brag about his accomplishments, but we have a short attention span and we won't care that much in fairly short order. Something bigger to worry about always comes along.
My prediction is that at the end of Trump's term we will basically be in the same position we are now. Lots of illegal immigrants here (but perhaps fewer crossing the border) and lots of new baby US citizens being born to them. Everybody griping, but nothing of substance changing. It's not like this is a new problem. I don't forsee any brilliant new ideas taking hold to address it.
For transparency purposes, I am vigorously pro-immigrant - legal or otherwise. I think our country is lucky to have them and that we are enhanced by their contributions. It is not their fault our laws don't recognize the reality of our needs. We draw them here with our availability for work. We are demand, they are supply. They are easily no more violent than people born here and they fulfill a needed role in our economy. We should recognize this, embrace them and make sure the promise of America becomes a reality for as many of them as possible. The promise of America has always been come here, work hard and you can make it. And your kids can do better than you...they can be anything. This promise was not kept from our ancestors and we cannot keep it from them. That would be unfair and un-American.
Edit 3/12/25: I can see how the above would make it seem that I am OK with an uncontrolled border. This is not the case. I feel strongly we need a highly controlled border so we know who comes into and leaves our country. Without a strong border, I'm not sure a country even continues to exist in the long term. I think our immigration policy needs to change to meet our country's needs so we can have a strong border and not depend on illegal immigrants for labor as we do now. We need to amend our process so that we allow many more legal immigrants in. I don't think we have too many immigrants or that we have the wrong immigrants here (with exceptions for violent criminals, drug smugglers, etc). We just need them to be legal and it's really our fault they are not. Most of them are working and our unemployment rate is low, so I don't see how anyone can realistically argue we don't need a lot of immigrant labor.
Of course, it's possible I'm wrong.