Birthright citizenship under threat in US

One of Donald Trump's first acts as the 47th president of the United States was to signal an end to "birthright citizenship".

As part of a "sweeping crackdown" on both undocumented and legal immigrants, Trump signed an executive order to end the right to citizenship for some children born in the US, said The Guardian, but implementing his plan will not be straightforward.

What is birthright citizenship?

Birthright citizenship, also known by the legal term jus soli – "right of the soil" in Latin – is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which rules that all persons born in the US and "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are citizens.

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The 14th Amendment is already understood to exclude children born to invading armies or foreign diplomats, who are considered to be subject to the jurisdiction of their home country. But a minority of constitutional scholars argue that unauthorised immigrants or those on temporary visas should not be considered as subject to the jurisdiction of the US, either. Such a reading "conflicts with the clear text and a legal interpretation more than a century old", said CNN, but it has nonetheless gained ground in some conservative circles.

Trump has argued that birthright citizenship is a "magnet for illegal immigration", said Newsweek, and he believes that denying citizenship to children born to parents without legal status would deter unauthorised migration and enhance national security.

What does Trump want to do?

Trump's executive order wants children born in the US but without at least one parent who is a lawful permanent resident or US citizen to be no longer automatically handed US citizenship.

Federal agencies would be banned from issuing or recognising documentation proving US citizenship for such children, and his executive order targets children born to both unauthorised immigrants and people legally in the US on temporary visas. The order does not suggest that the new restrictions would apply retrospectively.

Will he succeed?

The president can "probably not" actually end birthright citizenship, said The Guardian. As a constitutional amendment, removing or changing it would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress. And Trump could face "significant legal hurdles", said the BBC, because 18 states, along with the city of San Francisco and the District of Columbia, have already sued the federal government and challenged the executive order.

Ultimately, the question is likely to go to the Supreme Court. The highest court of the land has not made any ruling connected to the 14th Amendment since 1898, but "a new conservative supermajority has given Trump supporters hope", said CNN.

A pregnant woman living in Massachusetts with temporary protected status is the lead plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Trump, accusing him of mounting a "flagrantly illegal" attempt to "strip citizenship" from millions of Americans "with a stroke of a pen", said The Independent.

How many people would it affect?

By 2022, the latest year for which data is available, there were 1.2 million US citizens born to unauthorised immigrant parents, according to the Pew Research Centre, but "as those children also have children", the "cumulative effect" of ending birthright citizenship would increase the number of unauthorised immigrants in the country to 4.7 million in 2050, according to the Migration Policy Institute.