Washington DC:
Newly elected US President Donald Trump has said he plans to end birthrightism in America once he comes to power. Birthright, guaranteed under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, means that anyone born within U.S. borders automatically becomes a citizen of the United States. This includes children of tourists, students studying at US universities on short-term visas and undocumented immigrants.
If the incoming president were to try to change the law through executive action after taking office, it would undo 150 years of the way the US has handled the issue.
What did Donald Trump say?
In his first formal television interview on Sunday since the presidential election, Trump was asked if he planned to follow through on his campaign promise to end Birthright, to which he said, “Yes, absolutely.”
“We're going to put an end to that because it's ridiculous,” he said during an interview on NBC's “Meet the Press.”
The president-elect said he plans to change the practice through executive action, noting there are other options.
In a small olive branch offering those who advocate allowing in undocumented immigrants — a key source of labor for much of the U.S. economy — to stay, Trump said he will “work with Democrats” on the so-called “ dreamers”. “—the immigrants who became successful residents by getting good jobs and starting businesses after entering the United States illegally as young children.
“I don't want to break up families, so the only way you don't break up the family is to keep them together and send them all back,” he added. If the Trump administration moves forward with this plan, it would mean deporting legal U.S. citizens, including those who acquired citizenship by birth, so that they are not separated from their families.
Several Republicans, including Mr. Trump, have argued that birthright citizenship gives rise to “birth tourism,” in which pregnant women from other countries enter the U.S. illegally or on tourist visas to give birth before returning to their home countries. In this way, their children are born American citizens.
What does the law say?
Birthright citizenship is a legal principle under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This principle was reaffirmed in the U.S. Constitution in 1868, after the four years of the American Civil War, to overturn the Supreme Court's Dred Scott v. Sandford decision that denied basic rights to African Americans. The ruling stated that enslaved people were not U.S. citizens and therefore could not expect any protection from the federal government or the courts.
Under the law, citizenship is automatically granted to individuals upon birth on U.S. soil. “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,” says the 14th Amendment.
The Constitution guarantees birthright rights to children born on U.S. soil, “regardless of the immigration or citizenship status of their parents,” according to the American Immigration Council website.
“For more than a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the 14th Amendment to automatically grant U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil,” it adds.
The US uses a combination of birthright citizenship: ancestry-based citizenship and place-of-place citizenship.
Birthplace-based citizenship, which grants citizenship based on place of birth, is formally called jus soli, a Latin term meaning “right to the soil,” while limited descent-based citizenship, called jus sanguinis, extends citizenship to children foreign-born U.S. citizens, provided legal requirements are met.
How can birthright citizenship be ended?
To implement any changes to the Constitution, the Trump administration will need the support of a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress – the Senate and the House of Representatives. Additionally, the amendment must also be ratified by three-quarters of all state legislatures, according to a report by Independent.
Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate and a 220-215 majority in the House of Representatives, meaning the US Grand Old Party (GOP) does not have the required numbers in either chamber.
In a 2011 article, the American Immigration Council noted that if birthright citizenship were ever ended in the U.S., it would result in parents having to prove their children's citizenship status. “Our birth certificates are proof of our citizenship. If birthright citizenship were eliminated, U.S. citizens would no longer be able to use their birth certificates as proof of citizenship,” the council said.
What can Donald Trump do to put an end to it?
Although Trump did not provide many details in his interview about how he planned to end birthright citizenship, the issue was discussed at length in a 2023 post on his campaign website. According to a report from the Associated Press, the website said Trump would issue an executive order on the first day of his presidency, making it clear that federal agencies “require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children will automatically become U.S. citizens.”
According to the incoming president, the executive order would make clear that children of illegal immigrants “shall not be issued passports or Social Security numbers, or eligible for certain taxpayer-funded social services.”
However, the law is clear that birthright citizenship cannot be terminated by executive order and such a move would almost certainly lead to a lawsuit.
But Trump may still be inclined to try through the courts, said Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the pro-immigration Cato Institute.
“I don't take his statements very seriously. He's been saying things like this for almost a decade. He did nothing to advance this agenda when he was previously president. The law and the justices are almost unanimously against his legal theory that the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States are not citizens,” Nowrasteh said.
Mr. Trump could push Congress to pass a law ending birthright citizenship, but he would still face the legal challenge that it violates the Constitution.
