The Solidarity Party has accused Government politicians of campaigning against strict immigration policies in the US while supporting "Trump-style citizenship laws" in Ireland.
It comes as the party's Irish Nationality and Citizenship (Restoration of Birthright Citizenship) Bill returns to the Dáil for debate.
The bill aims to restore eligibility for Irish citizenship to everyone who is born on the island of Ireland.
It follows a number of high-profile cases in which children were issued with deportation orders - despite being born and raised here.
Most recently, nine-year-old Wicklow boy, Eric Zhi Ying Xue was faced with deportation - despite the fact that he was born here and had never left the country before.
A grassroots campaign urging the Government to reverse the decision garnered the support of tens of thousands of people - including the Health Minister Simon Harris.
I stand with Eric Zhi Ying Xue in Bray. He is 9. He is Irish. He was born in Holles Street. He is part of our community. On humanitarian grounds alone, this should be resolved. Common sense must prevail. Have made representations to that effect.
— Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) October 18, 2018
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Solidarity TD Paul Murphy said Ireland's laws on birthright citizenship were introduced on the basis of "the same kind of divisive, racist rhetoric that we currently see coming from Donald Trump."
"At that time and now, they have never presented any evidence for these claims; there is no evidence to suggest that this is some sort of phenomenon that exists," he said.
"Instead when you look at the real cases, the kind of people you are talking about are people like Eric.
"And you know you have a situation where Irish politicians will be going abroad to the US; will be campaigning against the removal of birthright citizenship in the US; will be campaigning rightly for the rights of the undocumented - but yet, they are going to support continuing such a negative policy regime here in terms of citizenship," he said.
🎬 Should people born in Ireland automatically become Irish citizens? @kierancuddihy and @andreagilligan on @BreakfastNT discuss the proposed bill which would see these rights restored. 🎧 Listen to the full interview here: https://t.co/dCUkNWxfBB pic.twitter.com/yGC9E2ARhX
— Newstalk (@NewstalkFM) January 15, 2019
Referendum
He said the 2004 referendum on the issue removed the clause from the Constitution - meaning the Dáil is free to legislate on the matter.
"The first point is that there is nothing undemocratic - in a situation where the people have left it up to the Dáil to decide exactly how citizenship should be regulated - that the Dáil should change the laws relating to it," he said.
"The second point is that I think that people have the experience now since 2004 of the very unjust impact of this new citizenship law.
"There was an opinion poll a couple of months ago that indicated 71% of people would like to see a change in the law along the lines that we are proposing; so we think it is in line with public opinion."
He said there are between 2,000 and 5,000 undocumented children currently living in Ireland and warned that their lack of citizenship places them in a "particularly vulnerable and precarious position."
