US birthright citizenship: What does Trump's loss mean?
The US Supreme Court has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, leaving US law unchanged. But why was the issue so important to
The US Supreme Court has blocked Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship, leaving US law unchanged. But why was the issue so important to Donald Trump, and what does his loss really mean? One of the first acts of Donald Trump's second term was an attempt to redefine the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. Among a flurry of executive orders, the US president called for an end to the concept of birthright citizenship, which has existed in the US since 1868. But his wish was denied on Tuesday, after the US Supreme Court ruled against the government. "It's one of the clearest statements of who we are as a country," said the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in a statement. "No matter who your parents are, if you're born here, you belong here." Trump had called the existing policy “a disgrace”, with his vice president JD Vance having previously described it as “the dumbest immigration policy in the world”. The order had already been through a number of number of legal twists and turns in various courts, including the Supreme Court. Though Tuesday’s ruling means the legal status is unchanged, it will still leave a mark, according to Kim Lane Scheppele. "The fact that the question is now open in a way it never was has made citizenship more precarious, including for those who have lived all of their lives in the US," 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. In a world of strongmen like Trump, how can countries adapt? To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "Don't forget that citizenship is under attack in many ways under Trump.
They've opened an office of denaturalization inside the Justice Department and are pressing to require proof of citizenship to vote. And few of us have such proof, less than half the US public has passports, for example." What is the current law regarding US birthright citizenship? The 14th Amendment says 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, whatever the status of their parents, become a US citizen by default. There are a few specific exceptions to the blanket law, including children born to foreign diplomats or invading enemy forces. How many people would changes to US birthright citizenship affect? The Migration Policy Institute think tank estimates that 255,000 children are born in the US every year to noncitizen parents. Any changes would not have been retrospective, meaning that anyone who previously qualified for citizenship under birthright would have remained unaffected. According to research by the Pew Research Center, that was as many as 4.4 million Americans between the period of 2006 and 2023 alone, though some will have left the country or died. Marco Rubio, whose parents were both born in Cuba, would fall foul of the proposed new system Image: Eric Lee/REUTERS A number of prominent Americans were granted US citizenship at birth despite their parents not being citizens at the time, including many members of Trump's inner circle. This includes Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Second Lady, Usha Vance.
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