How might birthright citizenship change under Trump?
With limited exceptions, the US Constitution guarantees citizenship to anyone born in America.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrant parents. He told NBC News he hopes to do so through executive action.
Why did we write this?
Donald Trump’s campaign highlighted the issue of illegal immigrants. And on day one, he may try to change their children’s future in the United States – in the face of a century of legal precedent.
The ensuing legal battle may end up in the Supreme Court. The Constitution specifies how it can be amended, and the process requires approval by Congress and the states.
The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people. The Supreme Court later affirmed birthright citizenship in the case of Wong Kim Arc, who was barred from returning to the United States after a trip to China on the grounds that he was not a US citizen.
Some legal minds say the case did not address the citizenship clause regarding children of illegal immigrants.
Mr. Trump says ending birthright citizenship is part of a crackdown on illegal immigration, and would eliminate the incentive for people to enter the United States without authorization.
But Jenny Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum, says birthright citizenship is among the “defining parts of the American experience.” Restricting this right “begins to undo the definition of what it means to be an American.”
Every person born in the United States, with limited exceptions, is a US citizen. the constitution He says so.
This is the reading of the law, dating back more than a century, that Donald Trump says he seeks to repeal on day one. The president-elect has pledged to end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrant parents, so that children born in the country will no longer have the right to citizenship. Automatically American
He confirmed the plan to NBC interview Which was broadcast on Sunday.
Why did we write this?
Donald Trump’s campaign highlighted the issue of illegal immigrants. And on day one, he may try to change their children’s future in the United States – in the face of a century of legal precedent.
“We have to get it over with,” Mr. Trump said. He added that he hopes this will be done through “executive measures.”
His transition team began drafting copies of the executive order, Reports The Wall Street Journal. The ensuing legal battle may end up in the Supreme Court. The Constitution specifies how it can be amended – and requires approval by Congress and the states.
The debate over birthright is not new. It’s part of a long-running national struggle over the promises and limits of immigration, and what some analysts see as unsettled legal questions.
How is automatic citizenship a right?
In the United States Constitution, the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment leads to this line:
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and citizens of the state in which they reside.”
The concept of citizenship in the country transformed during the civil war era. In 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States to rule That the slaves were not American citizens. the Civil Rights Act of 1866 He reversed that decision, granting U.S. citizenship to people born here regardless of race or previous enslavement.
This law served as a starting point for the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to formerly enslaved people when it was ratified in 1868. Three decades later, the Supreme Court affirmed birthright citizenship in the case. United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
Born in San Francisco to Chinese parents, Wong Kim Arc was banned from returning to the United States after a trip to China on the grounds that he was not an American citizen. At 6-2 resolutionThe judges confirmed that it was.
Wong Kim Ark’s ruling upended the prevailing understanding of automatic citizenship. But some legal minds say the citizenship clause remains unsettled — especially for children of illegal immigrants. They say this question was not addressed in the Wong Kim Ark case.
During the interview with NBC, Mr. Trump repeated the false claim that only the United States has birthright citizenship. Many countries do, Included Canada and Mexico.
Why does President-elect Trump want to restrict automatic citizenship?
Mr. Trump portrays it as part of a crackdown on illegal immigration that has snowballed under the Biden administration. This includes removing what Trump calls “the incentive.”
He talked about ending automatic citizenship before and during his first term, but… You did not sign the order. During his last election campaign Released A video clip in which he pledges to tackle the mission again as part of securing the border.
“On Day One, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, future children of illegal aliens will not automatically receive U.S. citizenship,” he said. “At least one parent must be a citizen or legal resident to be eligible.”
New York Times I mentioned Last month, Mr. Trump’s team planned to stop issuing documents such as passports and Social Security cards to children born to unauthorized immigrant parents on American soil.
The president-elect also said he wants to curb “birth tourism,” where women come from abroad to give birth to their babies here. These schemes exist, and frauds carried out by Chinese citizens exist He was tried By the US government. However, some of Trump’s critics have described his handling of “birth tourism” as xenophobic.
In 2016, the most recent year available, about 250,000 children were born to undocumented immigrant parents in the United States. Reports Pew Research Center.
Can Mr. Trump actually change birthright citizenship?
This is not clear. Any executive order would likely spark a legal battle, and could end up in the country’s Supreme Court. One point of debate, which some legal experts say could be key, is how to interpret who is “subject to jurisdiction” of the United States — as the law states.
However, changing the citizenship clause in the constitution would require an amendment. That would Includes Approval by a two-thirds majority vote of the US House of Representatives and Senate, and ultimately ratification by at least 38 states. The last amendment was added in 1992.
Birthright citizenship is among the “defining parts of the American experience,” says Jenny Murray, president of the National Immigration Forum. She says restricting this right “begins to undo the definition of what it means to be an American,” which could be seen as a step too far for some Trump supporters.
Former immigration judge Andrew Arthur maintains that entering the United States without authorization is a crime. The advantage of citizenship “creates an attraction,” he says. “In general, we try to remove those incentives from our law.”
Automatic citizenship is “a question that must be resolved in the Constitution,” says Mr. Arthur, a law and policy fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. He points out that there is already an exception to which the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship requirement applies: children Foreign diplomats.
Hiroshi Motomura, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law, believes the Supreme Court is unlikely to strike down Wong Kim Arc. Although it is possible, he says, that would reverse more than a century of precedent.