Former President Donald Trump has reignited a contentious immigration debate by pledging to end birthright citizenship if elected in November.
The proposal, unveiled in a campaign video, aims to halt the automatic citizenship granted to children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents. Trump asserts that this policy would address “birth tourism” and other concerns regarding undocumented immigration.
Trump’s plan, which he promises to implement via an executive order on his first day back in office, would require at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or legal resident for a child to qualify for birthright citizenship.
This proposal is a stark challenge to the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals born or naturalized in the United States.
The 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War to ensure that former slaves and their descendants were recognized as U.S. citizens. The provision has been widely interpreted by legal scholars as a fundamental constitutional right. However, Trump’s proposal has already sparked significant controversy and legal challenges.
Omar Jadwat, an attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) involved in challenging Trump’s previous executive orders, predicts that Trump’s birthright citizenship plan would face a “mountain of opposition” in the courts.
“It’s directly in the teeth of the 14th Amendment,” Jadwat said. “It would essentially be an attempt to dismantle one of the core constitutional protections that has been central to our nation.”
The Supreme Court’s handling of Trump’s prior travel ban, which was ultimately upheld in a diluted form, suggests that a legal battle over birthright citizenship could also be protracted and complex.
Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, acknowledges the formidable legal challenges Trump would face, indicating that if the proposal is struck down, amending the Constitution would be the next step.
Trump’s plan also targets “birth tourism,” a practice where individuals reportedly travel to the U.S. late in pregnancy to ensure their child receives American citizenship.
However, it remains unclear how many such cases exist annually. Estimates from the American Immigration Council suggest there are approximately 3.7 million U.S.-born children with at least one undocumented parent, but exact figures on birth tourism are not well-documented.
Critics of Trump’s proposal highlight the practical and legal difficulties of enforcing such a policy. The idea was previously dismissed by former House Speaker Paul Ryan, who stated in 2018:
“You can’t do something like this via executive order.”
The proposal is notably absent from the 2024 Republican platform, which focuses on other immigration issues such as merit-based immigration and ending chain migration. Ken Cuccinelli, former DHS official and author of Project 2025, has not detailed how the proposal could be lawfully implemented, reflecting the complex legal and policy challenges ahead.
Trump’s campaign has yet to comment further on the logistics of the proposed executive order, but the promise to end birthright citizenship underscores a renewed debate over immigration and constitutional rights in America.
