One of the first acts of Donald Trump’s second term was an attempt to redefine the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. Amid a flurry of executive orders, the US President called for ending the concept of birthright citizenship, which has existed in the US since 1868.
But his wish was rejected after the US Supreme Court ruled against the government on Tuesday. “It is one of the clearest statements of who we are as a country,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a statement. “No matter who your parents are, if you’re born here, you belong here.”
Trump has called the current policy “outrageous”, with his Vice President J.D. Vance previously calling it “the stupidest immigration policy in the world”.
The order had already gone through several legal twists and turns in various courts, including the Supreme Court. Although Tuesday’s decision means the legal position is unchanged, according to Kim Lane Sheppell, it will still leave a mark.
“The truth is that this question is now open in a way that has never made citizenship more uncertain, including for people who have spent their entire lives in the United States,” the professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton and an expert in the sociology of law told DW shortly before the decision was announced.
“Don’t forget that under Trump, citizenship is under attack in many ways. He opened an office of denaturalization inside the Justice Department and is pushing to require proof of citizenship to vote. And few of us have that proof, for example less than half of the American public has passports.”
What is the current law regarding US birthright citizenship?
The 14th Amendment states that: “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”.
This has been consistently interpreted by courts and governments to mean that children born in the US, regardless of the status of their parents, become US citizens by default. The broad law has some specific exceptions, including children born to foreign diplomats or invading enemy forces.
How many people will be affected by the change to US birthright citizenship?
Migration Policy Institute Think Tank It is estimated that 255,000 children are born to non-citizen parents in the US each year.
None of the changes are retroactive, meaning anyone who was previously eligible for citizenship under birthright will be unaffected. according to Research by Pew Research Center, Between the period of 2006 and 2023 alone there were 4.4 million Americans, although some may have left the country or died.
Several prominent Americans were granted US citizenship at birth despite their parents not being citizens at the time, including several members of Trump’s inner circle. This includes the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, FBI Director Kash Patel and the second woman, Usha Vance.
What effect would the change have had?
While the court has now ruled that no changes to birthright citizenship will take effect, the Trump administration’s proposed changes, if implemented, would significantly alter how citizenship is determined at birth.
It’s hard to know exactly but the Trump administration says that, upon a child’s birth, his or her parents’ status will be assessed to determine whether the child is eligible for citizenship and the other important documents that come with it. From that point on, the birth certificate alone will not be enough to obtain a passport or Social Security number.
What happens to a child’s statehood will largely depend on where their parents are from. Some countries do not automatically grant citizenship to their citizens born abroad, particularly in Southeast Asia. In such a situation, it appears that the child will become stateless.
“An important thing to understand about the United States is that we don’t have any readily available way to prove citizenship, because most of us rely on birthright citizenship to make that claim,” Sheppell said.
“So women who have just given birth – let alone fathers of new infants – will have no readily available ways to prove their citizenship in cases of absolutely routine birth. Imagine if the citizenship and immigration status of all new parents had to be recorded for every birth in the country – and you can begin to see the administrative chaos that would result.”
How does birthright citizenship work elsewhere?
Trump has often falsely claimed that the US is “the only country that has it”. In fact, Data compiled by Pew Research Center Turns out that 32 other countries, mostly in North America and Latin America, also offer birthright citizenship.
Elsewhere, the picture is a little more complex. Many countries, including Greece, Iran, France and Morocco, offer it to any child whose parents were born in their country. Other countries such as Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom grant citizenship to any child born to a legal resident of that country. At the more restrictive end, countries such as Israel, Haiti, and Liberia grant birthright citizenship only to those who fall within defined criteria.
What could this mean for Trump politically?
Trump has previously described birthright citizenship as a “magnet for illegal immigration”, leading him to believe it is allowing foreign citizens to unfairly receive American benefits. His failure to get one of his key immigration policies through the courts will undoubtedly be troubling.
The ability to implement such tough immigration policies is key to delivering on his promises. Trump has done much to deport “illegal aliens” on a large scale, limit refugee arrivals, and bolster the success of his Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
While failure will be disappointing for him and his administration, it is unlikely to distract him from this aspect of the ‘America First’ strategy that defines him. But while a victory could open the door to even more extreme policy for those who are already citizens, Tuesday’s decision should ease those concerns, at least for now.
Edited by: Andreas Illmer