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President Trump signed an order that would treat the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants as noncitizens, effectively denying them birthright citizenship. The Constitution could stand in the way.
President Trump on Monday declared that his government would no longer treat the U.S.-born children of undocumented people as citizens, signaling his intent to essentially ignore the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in a move that is all but certain to invite a legal challenge.
His order directed federal agencies not to issue citizenship documents to such children, starting in 30 days.
It flew in the face of the guarantee, rooted in common law and enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years, that anyone born in the United States is automatically an American citizen.
In the executive order, Mr. Trump said he would interpret the 14th Amendment differently than had been done in the past, arguing that it “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”
The order would mean that citizenship would not be extended to a child whose mother and father are not authorized to be in the United States at the time of birth.
Mr. Trump has long said that conferring American citizenship on the children of undocumented immigrants was unacceptable to him. But because birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, such an order would face major legal challenges. Any change to the Constitution requires supermajority votes in Congress, and then ratification by three-quarters of the states.
