United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to end birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term, a right that has been part of the Constitution for over 150 years.
While this could have significant implications for Indian immigrants and their children, any efforts to abolish birthright citizenship would face major legal challenges, as the right is part of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to end birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term, a right that has been part of the Constitution for over 150 years.
The provision grants American citizenship to anyone born in the US, but Trump has argued that it is being abused and has promised to impose tougher standards for citizenship.
While this could have significant implications for Indian immigrants and their children, any efforts to abolish birthright citizenship would face major legal challenges, as the right is part of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Critics have argued that overturning this provision could convey a wrong message about the nation's values.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen. It's been in place for decades and applies to children born to someone in the country illegally or in the US on a tourist or student visa who plans to return to their home country.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress ratified the 14th Amendment in July 1868. That amendment assured citizenship for all, including Black people.
The 14th Amendment says, “All persons born or naturalised in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," it further states.
But the 14th Amendment didn't always allow everyone born in US to get the birthright citizenship. The US Congress finally granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the US only in 1924.
A key case in the history of birthright citizenship came in 1898, when the US Supreme Court ruled that Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a US citizen because he was born in the states. The federal government had tried to deny him reentry into the county after a trip abroad on grounds he wasn't a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
But some have argued that the 1898 case clearly applied to children born of parents who are both legal immigrants to America but that it's less clear whether it applies to children born to parents without legal status or, for example, who come for a short-term like a tourist visa.
Some supporters of immigration restrictions believe that the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" in the 14th Amendment lets the US deny citizenship to babies born to undocumented immigrants. Trump also used this argument in his 2023 announcement about ending birthright citizenship if reelected.
During an interview Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press” Trump said he had planned to halt birthright citizenship once in office.
“We're going to end that because it's ridiculous,” he reportedly said.
Trump and other opponents of birthright citizenship have argued that it creates an incentive for people to come to the US illegally or take part in “birth tourism", in which pregnant women enter the US specifically to give birth so their children can have citizenship before returning to their home countries.
“Simply crossing the border and having a child should not entitle anyone to citizenship,” said Eric Ruark, director of research for NumbersUSA, which argues for reducing immigration. The organisation supports changes that would require at least one parent to be a permanent legal resident or a US citizen for their children to automatically get citizenship.
Several people have argued that ending birthright citizenship would profoundly damage the country.
Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the pro-immigration Cato Institute said, "One of our big benefits is that people born here are citizens, are not an illegal underclass. There's better assimilation and integration of immigrants and their children because of birthright citizenship."
Nowrasteh also said, “I don't take his statements very seriously. He has been saying things like this for almost a decade," and added "He didn't do anything to further this agenda when he was president before. The law and judges are near uniformly opposed to his legal theory that the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States are not citizens."
There are over 5.4 million Indian Americans in the US, making up 1.47 per cent of the total population. More than two-thirds of them are immigrants, while 34 per cent were born in the US.
In 2019, the Migration Policy Institute reported that 5.5 million children under 18 lived in the US with at least one parent who was an undocumented immigrant, making up 7 per cent of the country’s child population, according to the Associated Press.
The nonpartisan think tank said during Trump's campaign for president in 2015 that the number of people in the country illegally would “balloon” if birthright citizenship were repealed, creating “a self-perpetuating class that would be excluded from social membership for generations”.
If birthright citizenship were changed, it could create problems for children born in the US to Indian parents with green cards or H-1B visas.
These children might not automatically become US citizens and could need to go through the naturalisation process or seek other legal solutions.
In the recent interview, Donald Trump discussed his goal of ending birthright citizenship but was unclear on how he would achieve it. He suggested potentially using an executive order, but also mentioned the possibility of needing a change to the 14th Amendment.
On his campaign website, Trump outlined plans to issue an executive order on his first day as president, requiring at least one parent to be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for their child to gain citizenship.
The order would also block certain benefits for children of undocumented immigrants.
Trump could steer Congress to pass a law to end birthright citizenship but would still face a legal challenge that it violates the Constitution, reported AP.