This Indian-Origin US Presidential Candidate Vows To End Birthright Citizenship in America

US Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy vowed at a Friday town hall event that he would deport all US-born children of undocumented immigrants if elected president.

Ramaswamy is not the first Republican to vow for something like that. For US President Donald Trump also made similar promises if he returns for a second term in the White House.

Under the 14th Amendment of the US contitution, anyone born in the country is granted citizenship automatically.

A Hindu Raised In The American Midwest

Vivek Ramaswamy is an American entrepreneur and presidential candidate. In February 2023, Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Ramaswamy was born in Ohio to immigrant parents from southern India. He was raised in the Hindu faith of his parents, but went to a Catholic high school. He earned a biology degree at Harvard University before moving on to Yale Law School.

Ramaswamy worked as a hedge fund investor and says he had already made several million dollars before graduating from Yale. In 2014 he founded his own biotech company, Roivant Sciences, which bought patents from larger companies for drugs that had not yet been fully developed and marketed. He resigned as CEO in 2021. In 2023 the business magazine Forbes estimated Ramaswamy's wealth at $630 million.

Republican Presidential Campaign

Ramaswamy declared his campaign for president in February, at a time when his bid looked like a long shot. Ramaswamy has been a fierce defender of Trump while seeking to appeal to Christian evangelicals, an important part of the Republican primary electorate. Although a Hindu, Ramaswamy has been telling voters that the U.S. is based on "Christian values" and "Judeo-Christian values" and has described himself as an American nationalist.

His policy positions are mostly deeply conservative. He opposes affirmative action and supports state-level bans on abortion after six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and if the mother's life is in danger. He wants to greatly expand the powers of the presidency and dismantle much of the federal government, including the FBI, the Department of Education and the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service.

(With Inputs from Reuters)