Trump signs executive order ending birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to strip U.S. citizenship from U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants — seeking to end a right that the U.S. Constitution has guaranteed for more than 150 years.

The executive order, which would apply to all babies born after February 19, is expected to be quickly challenged in court as it would constitute an extraordinary departure from the historic interpretation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.

Trump’s attempt to end citizenship rights could leave untold numbers of newborns in legal limbo while their undocumented parents, including newly postpartum women, must navigate a complex new landscape that threatens their own expulsion.

The order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” was signed just hours after Trump took office. “This is an important issue,” Trump said as he signed the order from the Oval Office, adding that he believed his administration had “very good reasons” to defend the policy. “People have wanted to do this for decades.”

The new administration will argue that a reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment will allow it to exclude two categories of infants from the right to U.S. citizenship: infants born to a mother who is in the country illegally and a father who is not. not a citizen. or permanent resident, and infants born to a mother authorized to be in the country for a temporary period and a father who is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.

The latter group includes people residing in the United States on a work, student, or tourist visa.

The ordinance does not address queer or non-binary couples, defining the mother and father as male and female “biological progenitors.”

The administration could prohibit the Social Security Administration from issuing Social Security numbers and cards to these babies. Parents usually request these documents when their baby is born in the hospital, along with the request for a birth certificate, which is issued by the state where the birth took place. Without U.S. citizenship, these babies would not be able to obtain passports, leaving them without access to another form of identification and unable to travel.

The birthright citizenship order was among several other new immigration policies put in place Monday, designed to fulfill Trump’s promises to cut immigration and deport millions of immigrants.

Wendy Cervantes, an immigration policy expert at the Center for Law and Social Policy, a nonprofit that advocates for poverty reduction, said before Trump took office that an attempt to end birthright citizenship could have lasting consequences for infants and create chaos for all welcoming families. new babies.

“Any attempt to undermine the right to citizenship through executive order would be unprecedented and even if stopped by the courts, would still harm newborns by denying them access to health care and supports that are so essential in the early years,” Cervantes said in a statement. call with reporters last week. “A repeal of birthright citizenship would ultimately make it more difficult for every family, including non-immigrants, to establish their new baby’s citizenship. »