Trump’s Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship
Birthright citizenship is the principle that anyone born on American soil is guaranteed U.S. citizenship—with only a few specific exceptions. This right is guaranteed under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (adopted in 1868). But just hours after taking office, President Trump issued an Executive Order modifying birthright citizenship. So, what does this mean? Here, btw takes a closer look.
What is Birthright Citizenship?
Birthright citizenship guarantees citizenship to an individual born in the United States, or a U.S. territory—if that person is subject to jurisdiction of that U.S. government. (This last part has been interpreted to mean that children born in the United States to foreign diplomats are not guaranteed U.S. citizenship. It also did not apply to Native Americans at that time.) The U.S. is one of at least thirty countries that grants birthright citizenship.
The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified in 1868 and when it passed it granted citizenship to the millions of newly freed people who had been denied citizenship when slavery was legal prior to the U.S. Civil War. But the concept of U.S. birthright citizenship has a long history.
Changing Legal Interpretations
In 1790, federal law stated that any white person could become a U.S. citizen if they’d lived in the U.S. for two years. Their children were also granted birthright citizenship. At that time, this law didn’t apply to enslaved people or Native Americans, so these groups were not considered citizens.
In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case that people of African descent were not considered citizens, even if they were born in the U.S. and had not been born into slavery. This was later changed after the Civil War, when Congress passed a civil rights law that extended citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
Then, in 1898, a Chinese American cook named Wong Kim Ark was denied reentry to the United States after a visit to China. Wong Kim Ark had been born in the United States, however, and as a U.S. citizen should not have been denied reentry. For months, he waited on a ship in the San Francisco harbor while his case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The nation’s high court ruled in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that any children born in theU.S. or its territories are automatically full citizens.
Other challenges to the idea of birthright citizenship have continued through the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In fact, the Fourteenth Amendment has become the focus of more lawsuits than any other part of the Constitution. During World War II, in the 1943 case Regan v. King, the Fourteenth Amendment was upheld when a group called the Native Sons of the Golden West tried to strip Japanese Americans of their citizenship.
The Trump Administration’s Opposition to Birthright Citizenship
But just hours after taking office, Trump announced an Executive Order that would change the definition of birthright citizenship. It states that after February 19, 2025, anyone born in the U.S. to parents who are not in the country legally will not be considered a citizen. In addition, children born to parents who are in the United States legally, but temporarily (for example if the parents are foreign students), will not be considered citizens either. It will also be illegal for any government agency to issue these children any kind of citizenship documents, such as a birth certificate or social security card. They would be unable to access education, health care, or other services. They would also be denied the right to vote or run for office. The order is not retroactive. It only applies to children born 30 days after the order was issued.
The Trump administration interprets the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” phrase of the Fourteenth Amendment to mean that if a child’s parents have not completed the legal steps for immigration and naturalization, then they aren’t “subject to the jurisdiction” and so their children can’t be, either. The Trump administration is hoping that this will be a tool to help curb illegal immigration.
Immigrant rights advocates say that if the Executive Order is successful, it would impact an estimated 47 million children by 2050.
Responding to the Order
So far, twenty-four states and two cities have filed at least five lawsuits against it. Lawsuits have also been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and immigration rights groups.
On January 23, 2025, U.S District Judge John Coughenour temporarily blocked the order from taking place. Judge Coughenour said that the president doesn’t have the authority to undo a Constitutional amendment by a single Executive Order. The injunction will halt further action for at least two weeks.