Children of the Rivera family look towards the sky while waiting to be apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border protection officers after crossing over into the U.S. in June 2024 in Ruby, Ariz.
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Brandon Bell/Getty Images
President Trump is expected to kick-start the process to revoke birthright citizenship after years of proposing the constitutional change as a way to reduce undocumented immigration.
Birthright citizenship, meaning that someone born within the U.S. or its the United States territories is automatically a U.S. citizen, is currently protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The clause often referred to 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 phrasing “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” to mean that the federal government would not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents without legal status, incoming White House officials told reporters on a call on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss upcoming actions.
This action is likely to see immediate legal challenges.
Details about who might be impacted or how he plans to move forward remain to be seen. He is expected to sign executive orders and actions Monday afternoon.
An estimated 4.7 million children would have one or both parents without legal status by 2050 under current policy, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. Immigrant rights advocates said the proposed move would affect the next generation of children.
“Ending birthright citizenship would be a really huge change in how we handle immigration and the right to belong in the United States,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, adding that this law contributes to the economic and educational success rates of immigrants’ children.
“Children of immigrants have had that sense of belonging and full rights in the United States that they’ve been able to harness to really support their integration.”
Over the last several decades, the number of babies born to parents who are unauthorized to be in the U.S. has dropped. The Pew Research Center in 2016 estimated the number to be about 250,000, noting that was a 36% decrease from 2007.
