Birthright Citizenship is a Constitutional Right
Ending birthright citizenship is a core component of President-Elect Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, in addition to implementing other devastating immigration policies once he is inaugurated in January. Attacks on birthright citizenship create an environment of intensified surveillance and hurt all Americans, who will face a higher burden to prove their citizenship.
Here is why birthright citizenship is an important part of U.S. history and crucial to American communities today.
First, birthright citizenship is a constitutional right, enshrined by the 14th amendment. Ratified in 1868, this amendment reversed judicial rulings that prevented naturalization for formerly enslaved African Americans and citizenship for their children. The amendment further extended “equal protection under the law” to all Americans, making it a cornerstone of civil rights in the United States. A repeal of birthright citizenship could mean undermining this foundational amendment and putting civil rights in question for all Americans—but especially for communities of color.
Second, ending birthright citizenship would affect the most vulnerable: children. The Trump Administration would be willing to “thrust children into a condition of legal limbo or statelessness where they may have no country to call home, and therefore, no guaranteed access to essential services like health care, education, nutrition, or opportunity for success.” Repealing birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants would increase the number of undocumented people living in the United State by approximately 5 million.
Third, the process of ending birthright citizenship is not a one-time action; instead, it would come with expensive and invasive government oversight to determine who is—and who is not—a U.S. citizen. The system we have now is straightforward: if you are born in the U.S. and have a U.S. birth certificate, you are a U.S. citizen (with very few exceptions). If birthright citizenship is nullified, U.S. birth certificates no longer prove citizenship for any Americans, whether their parents are immigrants or not. All parents would be financially responsible for navigating new government bureaucracy to defend their newborns’ citizenship, which could cost more than $1,000 per child.
Constitutional experts are clear: the “14th amendment is not just another immigration policy… It defines who we are as a nation” and is foundational to U.S. history, democracy, and civil rights. Further, eliminating birthright citizenship would do nothing to solve our immigration issues and would likely increase the number of undocumented people living in the United States. Repealing birthright citizenship is not the answer to a flawed immigration system. It is only an effort to extend racist and xenophobic ideologies in the United States as a steppingstone to erode the constitutional rights of all Americans.