What is birthright citizenship, does it stop immediately in US with Trump's order?
Among the orders Donald Trump's issued after taking oath as US President, the most talked about has turned out to be his move against birthright citizenship.
Donald Trump started off his second term as US President with a bunch of sweeping executive orders and actions that targeted illegal immigrants, birthright citizenship and set his priorities for his term in which he has promised to ‘make America great again’.
Among the orders Donald Trump's issued after taking oath as US President, the most talked about has turned out to be his move against birthright citizenship.
The new president signed an order seeking to end automatic birthright citizenship for children of people not in the country legally, as well as those in legally but only temporarily, such as tourists, students, and those on work visas. Follow Donald Trump news live updates
“We’re the only country in the world that does this with birth right, as you know, and it’s just absolutely ridiculous,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “We think we have very good grounds” for the change, he said.
While Donald Trump issued an order seeking to hal birthright citizenship, it is unclear whether his order will survive inevitable legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution.
What is birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship is a legal principle that automatically grants citizenship of a country to individuals at birth regardless of their parents' nationality or immigration status. In simple terms, it means that any child born on the territory of a country automatically becomes a citizen of that country.
In the US, birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "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."
What is Trump's order on birthright citizenship?
The Donald Trump order, share on White House website, implies that the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted in the past. The Whit House order argues that the Amendment does not automatically extend citizenship to everyone born in the US, especially those born to parents who are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction (i.e., not U.S. citizens or legal residents).
The order reads: “…But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Consistent with this understanding, the Congress has further specified through legislation that “a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is a national and citizen of the United States at birth, 8 U.S.C. 1401, generally mirroring the Fourteenth Amendment’s text.”
The order points out that the Fourteenth Amendment, while granting citizenship to those born in the US, has always excluded certain categories of people, including children of foreign diplomats or those born to parents who are unlawfully in the country or temporarily in the US (such as on a student or tourist visa).
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The order also references the historical misinterpretation of the Constitution in a 1857 Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which it says wrongly excluded people of African descent from US citizenship. In contrast, the order suggests that the proper interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment should limit birthright citizenship in cases where the parents are not fully subject to US jurisdiction.
According to the policy change, a child whose mother was unlawfully in the US and the father was not a US citizen or legal resident won’t automatically get US citizenship.
Further, if the “mother was in the US temporarily (like on a tourist or student visa) and the father wasn’t a US citizen or permanent resident, the child also won't automatically get US citizenship.”
Does birthright citizenship end immediately in US?
This change will apply only to children born in the US after 30 days from the date of the order, the White House release said.
The order does not immediately stop birthright citizenship in the US as it faces several legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US Constitution.
With steep legal challenges ahead, a White House official previewing the executive orders, cited in an Associated Press report, on condition of anonymity provided no information on how Trump intends to carry it out.
Trump’s order would threaten children and their families “with a lifetime of exclusion from society and fear of deportation from the only country they have ever known,” a complaint by an advocate cited in a Bloomberg report said. “But that is illegal. The Constitution and Congress — not President Trump — dictate who is entitled to full membership in American society,” it added.
The complaint was under a lawsuit was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against Donald Trump's birthright citizenship move.
Asked by a reporter about the possibility of legal challenges earlier in the day, Donald Trump had reportedly replied, “We’ll see. We think we have very good grounds.”
Democratic state attorneys general released statements after Trump signed the order saying they were considering legal action as well.
