Topline
President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News he wants to end birthright citizenship—in which anyone born in the U.S. automatically becomes a citizen—on “day one” of his second term, a plan that’s certain to face legal challenges as experts widely believe he does not have the power to change the policy on his own.
President-Elect Donald Trump is interviewed on “Meet the Press.”
Key Facts
Trump said he wants to end birthright citizenship in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, answering, “Yeah, absolutely,” when asked if it was still his plan to “end birthright citizenship on day one”—adding he would end it through executive action “if we can.”
In the past, Trump has proposed ending birthright citizenship solely for the children of undocumented immigrants.
The Constitution’s 14th Amendment 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,” which has been interpreted to mean that everyone born in the U.S. automatically becomes a citizen, with only extremely narrow exceptions for people who aren’t subject to U.S. law, like the children of foreign diplomats.
Trump could not undo the 14th Amendment’s provision unilaterally through an executive order: In order to amend the Constitution, both chambers of Congress would have to pass the amendment with a two-thirds majority, and it would also have to be approved by at least three-quarters of the states.
If he tries to restrict birthright citizenship, Trump would likely instead try and adopt a legal theory that’s been pushed by a minority of legal experts, which claims the 14th Amendment granting birthright citizenship to people who are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. means the amendment doesn’t apply to children of undocumented immigrants who are residing in the U.S. unlawfully.
Restricting birthright citizenship under that reasoning would immediately spark legal challenges, however, and most legal experts do not accept that interpretation of the law: Former United States Military Academy law professor Margaret Stock described it to NPR in 2018 as a “lunatic fringe argument” and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, professor Rebecca Hamlin told the outlet any lawyer who believes it is “like a unicorn.”
The issue would likely go to the Supreme Court, which—despite its conservative majority—may be unwilling to rule for Trump, with Mark Krikorian, who runs the Center for Immigration Studies and supports ending birthright citizenship, acknowledging to NBC News, “it’s something that the Supreme Court may well decide against.”
Crucial Quote
“Well, we’re going to have to get it changed,” Trump told NBC about birthright citizenship. “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.”
How Would Trump’s New Citizenship Plan Work?
It’s still too early to say what the final specifics of any Trump plan to end birthright citizenship would look like, but in a May 2023 video, Trump proposed a plan in which people born in the U.S. would have to have at least one parent who’s a citizen or legal U.S. resident in order to qualify for citizenship. NBC News noted in November the plan would likely be retroactive, meaning people already born in the U.S. with undocumented parents would remain citizens. Trump separately suggested on “Meet the Press” he could deport people even if they are citizens, however, saying that rather than separating families and deporting only family members who are undocumented, “The only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
What Would The Impact Of Ending Birthright Citizenship Be?
Trump has promoted birthright citizenship as a way of curbing immigration, claiming it would crack down on undocumented immigrants practicing “birth tourism” or using children to “skip the line” on becoming legal residents. Studies have shown it could actually make the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. go up, however, as more people in the U.S. who would otherwise be citizens would now be undocumented. A study released by the Migration Policy Institute in September 2010 found that if birthright citizenship ended only for people who have two undocumented parents—as in Trump’s 2023 proposal—there would be 16 million undocumented immigrants by 2050, which is 44% larger than if birthright citizenship stayed in place. The change would also add new bureaucratic hurdles for all Americans having children, who would have to prove their U.S. residency or citizenship and register their children as citizens, rather than have that conferred automatically. It would also likely mean Americans wouldn’t be able to provide birth certificates as proof of citizenship anymore, and could complicate things like applying for passports.
Surprising Fact
Trump claimed on “Meet the Press” that the U.S. is the only country with birthright citizenship, but that is false: More than 30 other countries also confer citizenship automatically on people who are born there, including Canada and Mexico.
Chief Critics
Even some high-profile Republicans have opposed Trump’s opinion that the 14th Amendment doesn’t guarantee citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. “You cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order,” former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said in 2018, telling a local radio station he’s a “believer in following the plain text of the Constitution … And I think in this case the 14th Amendment is pretty clear.” James Ho, a prominent conservative judge who now sits on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals and has been floated as one of Trump’s potential Supreme Court nominees, also opposed the theory in a 2009 report for the American Immigration Council. Ho, who was Texas’ solicitor general at the time, argued birthright citizenship “is protected no less for children of undocumented persons than for descendants of Mayflower passengers.” “Text, history, judicial precedent, and Executive Branch interpretation confirm” that the 14th Amendment’s text “reaches most U.S.‐born children of aliens, including illegal aliens,” Ho wrote. The exceptions would be cases like the children of foreign diplomats or enemy combatants, Ho noted, who would not be subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
Key Background
Ending birthright citizenship is not a new proposal for Trump, who also floated ending the longstanding right during his 2016 campaign and in his first term. The ex-president never ultimately took any action on birthright citizenship while in office, however, which he justified to “Meet the Press,” claiming, “I was going to do it through executive action but then we had to fix COVID first, to be honest with you.” The proposal is one of a number of crackdowns Trump has promised to make on immigration during his second term, including mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and curbing family-based visas, which Republicans have termed “chain migration.”
Contra
While Trump is planning hardline moves on most undocumented immigrants in his second term, the president-elect told “Meet the Press” he does think there should be protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients—known as “Dreamers”—who were brought into the U.S. as undocumented immigrants at a very young age. “I think we can work with the Democrats and work something out,” Trump said.
Further Reading
FACT CHECK: 14th Amendment On Citizenship Cannot Be Overridden By Executive Order (NPR)
