CNN
–
President Donald Trump seeks to end citizens by birth in the US, a practice of almost 160 years guaranteed by the 14th amendment of the Constitution of that country, which grants citizens to any person born on US soil. However, implementing this controversial order will be a challenge, since it already faces important legal obstacles.
USA ius soli, which in Latin means “land right.”
Some other countries grant citizens by birth with certain conditions. Spain, for example, requires that at least one of the parents has also been born in the country. And Chile does not grant citizens to the children of foreigners who are temporarily in the country.
The Trump administration argument to end citizens by birth is based on the “subject to jurisdiction” clause included in the declaration of the Constitution.
The Administration argues that children born to undocumented immigrants or foreigners who are in the US legally, but with temporary visas, are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and, therefore, are not citizens.
Until now, Trump’s order has faced legal rejections.
On Wednesday, a federal judge issued a preliminary judicial order at the national level that prevents its application. This follows the decision of another judge last month, who temporarily blocked the Trump order by qualifying it as “openly unconstitutional.”
More than 20 states, mostly led by Democrats, have filed lawsuits in two different federal courts arguing that the President has no authority to change or cancel a constitutional amendment. Civil and future parents have also filed similar demands.
If Trump’s order survives judicial challenges, he would not revoke the citizenship of children born in the US before entry into force. However, its implementation would affect millions of migrants if they had children.
In 2023, the US had around 22.9 million immigrants who were not naturalized citizens, including green card residents, people with temporary work or study visas and undocumented migrants, according to data from the US Census Office. UU. They represent almost 7% of the total population, and more than half was born in Latin America.
Other data show trends that underline the importance of immigrants in births in the US in 2023, 86% of children under 18 in immigrant families were born in the US, according to the Institute of Migration Policy. The number of these children has more than duplicate in the last three decades.
Between 2013 and 2024, an average of 860,000 babies were born every year of mothers born abroad, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While total births in the US have decreased in the last decade, the fall has been more pronounced between mothers born in the US than between foreign mothers.
The case against Trump’s order could finally reach the Supreme Court, which in a historical ruling of 1898 determined that people born in US territory are citizen, even if their parents are not.
In addition to being considered “unconstitutional”, several surveys conducted last month show that the elimination of citizenship by birth for the children of undocumented immigrants is unpopular. Less than a third of respondents in polls AP/NORC and Quinnipiac University They expressed their support to measure.
(Tagstotranslate) Citizenship by birth
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