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President Trump is expected to begin the process of revoking the birthright after years of proposing constitutional change as a way to reduce illegal immigration.

Birthright citizenship, meaning that a person born in the United States or its territories is automatically a U.S. citizen, is currently protected by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. THE often mentioned clause states that “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.”

Trump wants to reinterpret the phrase “subject to his jurisdiction” to mean the federal government would not automatically recognize birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents without legal status, new officials said Monday from the White House to reporters in a phone call. on condition of anonymity to discuss future actions.

This action is likely to give rise to immediate legal challenges.

Details on who might be affected or how it plans to move forward remain to be seen. He is expected to sign executive orders and actions Monday afternoon.

Over the past several decades, the number of babies born to parents without legal status to reside in the United States has declined. The Pew Research Center estimates that 1.3 million adults born in the United States are children of illegal immigrants, according to 2022 data, the latest available.

But immigrant rights advocates said the proposed decision would affect the next generation of children. An estimated 4.7 million children will have one or two parents without legal status by 2050, under current policy. according to data from the Migration Policy Institute.

“Ending birthright citizenship would represent a truly enormous change in the way we manage immigration and birthright citizenship in the United States,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Birthright Citizenship Program. immigration policy at the Migration Policy Institute, adding that this law contributes to the economic and educational success rate of children of immigrants.

“Children of immigrants had this sense of belonging and full rights in the United States that they were able to leverage to really support their integration.”

New Interpretation of the 14th Amendment

A growing coalition of conservatives has begun promoting a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment in an effort to limit the number of migrants without legal status in the country.

During his first term, Trump’s legal advisers encouraged his ability to challenge him unilaterally. In 2020, Trump The State Department issued a rule change aimed at reducing the practice of traveling to the United States for the specific purpose of giving birth, and at the border, pregnant women were removed from a list of “vulnerable” people.

During its first presidential campaign in 2015Trump also promised to end birthright and in 2018 he said he would issue a decree. But this order never came to fruition.

Immigration has re-emerged as a major issue on the campaign trail in the 2024 election, with Trump promising voters he would end birthright. He reiterated this objective during his first cable television interview with NBC Meet the press after the elections.

Immigrant rights groups say any effort to repeal citizenship rights would have a detrimental effect on communities, local economies and the well-being of families, as they leave or live in fear that their future children are not allowed.

“Preventing people from obtaining citizenship, and even children born in the United States, could really threaten that integration and threaten the contributions of children of immigrants to the country,” Gelatt said.

In the 2023 GOP primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and then candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and others have also called for an end to birthrights for children of parents without legal status.

Lawmakers also debated the issue. In the last Congress, former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced legislation to limit birthright citizenship and in 2015 the The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue.

Yet no effort or idea has moved forward – until now.

Marielena Hincapie, a distinguished visiting immigration scholar at Cornell Law School, said the idea that a president could be responsible for taking away the birthright is concerning because that authority might not belong there. His comments suggest legal challenges are likely.

“What we know is that the president does not have the executive authority to overturn the 14th Amendment and birthright at this level,” Hincapie said. “Many, many questions will arise, and confusion and chaos will develop.”