Supreme Court Rejects Trump’s Attempt to End Birthright Citizenship

The Texas Tribune

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday shut down President Donald Trump’s attempt to reverse a 170-year-old constitutional right that gives American citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that children born on American soil to undocumented parents are “‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause.”

On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order denying automatic U.S. citizenship to babies unless one parent is either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident — known as a green card holder — at the time of the baby’s birth. In addition to children of undocumented parents, the executive order excludes automatic U.S. citizenship to babies born to parents who are in the country temporarily, such as people in the country with a student, work or tourist visa.

According to the Pew Research Center, about 250,000 babies were born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S., or 6% of the total births, in 2016, the latest year for which data is available.

In 1868, Congress passed, and voters ratified, the amendment, which begins: “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.”

The Amendment was a reaction to another Supreme Court decision — The 1857 Dred Scott ruling that declared black people of African descent were not U.S. citizens.

Three decades after the 14th Amendment passed, the court cemented it through its ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, when the justices said a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.

Trump has called the practice “stupid.” The majority of countries do not have a similar law granting citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants.

Critics of the law have pointed to examples of pregnant women entering the U.S. illegally and then having an “anchor baby” while in the country, which then gives them immediate access to taxpayer-funded health care.

Only on rare occasions is a baby born in the U.S. not considered a citizen, such as a child born to foreign diplomats.