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The Birthright Citizenship Debate is Officially on

Katie Pavlich
Katie Pavlich  |  January 23, 2025 11:45 AM

UPDATE: The first legal ruling is in

***Original post***

On Monday President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.

"Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States:  (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth," the order states. 

The move immediately prompted a lawsuit from the ACLU and 22 Democrat state attorneys general. The 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution 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." 

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It was a strategy of the White House to push the executive order and prompt debate on the issue in the courts. The Trump administration argues, "That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race. But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States."  

Eventually, the case could be taken up by the Supreme Court and the current justices may have a different interpretations or come to a different conclusion about how the 14th amendment is defined. 

On Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers introduced new legislation Tuesday to end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants, noting it was never intended for foreigners who deliberately break the law. 

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