For generations, people who lived and worked in the United States assumed that if they ended up having a child there, that child would have the right to citizenship, which comes with official documents and a government ID.
That may change soon.
US President Donald Trump issued Executive order on his first day in office, which astonished immigration observers in its scope.
everyone expected He should try to end birthright citizenship for children of people who entered the United States illegally, overturning more than 125 years of accepted constitutional law. But then he went a giant step forward. As currently written, his order applies to Millions More people working legally within the United States Nonimmigrant work visas — including many Canadians — throwing additional families into legal limbo. Only the children of at least one permanent resident will be saved.
“It’s unprecedented,” said Angela Maria Kelly, senior counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“This would be a historic reversal of our national identity. The basic principle is that if you are born here, you belong here. That your parents’ past is not your future.”
The order is not retroactive, but only applies to future births, starting next month. It will be challenged in court, where he already faces multiple lawsuits.
In the meantime, this means a state of uncertainty for people, and what may constitute an epic legal battle that could last for many years, all the way to the Supreme Court in the United States.
The current order appears to block citizenship documents for a wide range of children, from tech workers on temporary visas, to veteran employees of international institutions such as the United Nations.
It states that U.S. officials may not provide or accept citizenship documents for a child of a mother in a legal but temporary status, such as a work, student, or tourist visa, when the father is not a citizen or permanent resident.
Challenging 125 years of law
Trump knows legal challenges are coming. He admitted this while signing the order in the Oval Office on Monday evening.
“This is a good idea. This is a birthright. This is a big deal,” Trump said, speaking with reporters as he signed successive executive orders.
He expressed confidence that he had legal grounds to do so. But he also seemed unaware of the basic truth of the case.
Trump stated that the United States is the only country with birthright citizenship: “It’s absolutely ridiculous.”
But citizenship as an acquired right is granted by dozens of countries around the world, e.g The vast majority are from the Americas – Including Canada.
Others suffer from it conditionally, and others do not suffer from it at all, including most countries in southern and eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. This change will make things especially complicated for people who have a child in the United States if their country of origin does not recognize extraterritorial births, Kelly said.
She said this would risk their children becoming stateless. Pregnant women living in the United States will need to examine not only American law, but also the law in their country, and determine where to give birth.
Who is in danger?
Lawsuits immediately filed against the order listed some of the potential impacts on people, including One suit From more than 20 blue states.
Countless numbers would be stateless, ineligible for everything from a driver’s license to a Social Security number and the ability to work legally, the suit says.
“They will all be deported, and many will be stateless,” the lawsuit states.
“The result will be a multi-generational class of marginalized families, who with each generation are increasingly disconnected from any country except the United States, and yet who will remain forever strangers.”
last suit Testimonies of affected people were provided. The lawsuit was filed by Indonesian and Latino community groups in the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.
One spouse came to the United States on tourist visas in 2023 and applied for asylum; They have a baby due in a month.
Another woman has lived in the United States for more than 20 years; She was brought in illegally as a child, and is now in what is called Dreamers Program. She has a baby due in March.
It is among many tales mentioned in the lawsuit of people who do not have official papers and keep their identities secret.
The backstory begins with the Civil War
Their case may now hinge on the 157-year-old man’s explanation Constitutional amendment.
Written in the wake of slavery Fourteenth Amendment It overturned the Dred Scott case, the racist ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court that declared that descendants of African-American slaves could not become citizens.
The 1868 Amendment made it clear that American citizenship belonged to every person born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
The present battle hinges on that last part in quotes.
Historically, it has been interpreted to mean almost everyone born in the United States except those children Categories of diplomatsBenefiting from full diplomatic immunity.
But Trump’s allies are challenging the most important issue in the case, which involves the US-born son of Chinese immigrants.
Wong Kim Arc was born in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1873. Twenty-two years later, he visited his parents’ home country, China, and was banned from returning to the United States on the grounds that he was not a citizen.
He was ineligible for citizenship because Anti-China law at that time.
He fought his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1898, that court to rule6-2, that Wong was in fact an American.
The ruling not only referred to the Fourteenth Amendment; She also explained that the members of Congress who drafted the amendment were aware that it could apply not only to former slaves but also to immigrants.
A minority of justices criticized the decision at the time, and since Then some described it as a selective reading of the intention of the drafters of the Constitution.
Critics insist that the amendment was not intended to apply widely. After 127 years, opponents of the resolution succeeded in convincing a president to try to challenge it.
“The privilege of becoming a citizen of the United States is a profound and priceless gift,” Trump’s executive order said in the opening words of his executive order, as it continues to designate new categories of people who are now ineligible.
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