Does Trump have the power to end birthright citizenship?

If you're born in the United States, you are — with rare exception — a citizen of the United States. President-elect Donald Trump wants to end birthright citizenship. But can he?

Ending birthright citizenship is a "top priority" for the incoming Trump administration, said The Hill. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" are citizens of the country, but Trump's anti-immigration allies say that provision is "being exploited in a way the amendment's framers never anticipated." They say the amendment authors never intended to let foreign citizens "gain a permanent foothold" in the United States by giving birth here. Democrats are prepared to do battle. "I think it would be foolish for us not to take it as a serious threat," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).

What did the commentators say?

Birthright citizenship is the "biggest legal hole in our border," Daniel McCarthy said at the New York Post. The current interpretation of the 14th Amendment means that children born to "convicts fleeing across our borders" would automatically be Americans — the same for "terrorists sneaking into our country." That's an "outrageous, absurd situation" that Trump is right to want to end, McCarthy said. Trump has suggested limiting the birthright to newborns with at least one parent who is either a citizen or legal permanent resident. To do otherwise is a "threat to national security and sovereignty itself."

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"Trump can't ditch birthright citizenship," The Washington Post said in an editorial. What's more, "he shouldn't want to." The "plain meaning" of the 14th Amendment can't simply be ignored or undone by "executive fiat." It was designed to refute the ugly idea that a "person's race or ethnicity should determine citizenship." The authors of the amendment "were aware of anti-immigrant sentiments and supported it regardless," said the Post. The good news? "Any attempt to end or limit birthright citizenship would probably fail in court."

What next?

Can Trump unilaterally end birthright citizenship? "Not easily," said The New York Times. After all, "the president cannot amend the Constitution" and any executive order Trump used to undermine the amendment "would almost certainly be challenged in court." That fight seems likely. Until recently, experts told the Times, it's unlikely that arguments against birthright citizenship would have gotten very far in the judicial system. The current conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court makes the question less predictable. "I don't think it's inconceivable," said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia, "which is what I would have said in 2019."

In the meantime, Trump's anti-immigration aides are drafting orders to make their vision reality, said Politico. The incoming president may order the Social Security Administration to "withhold Social Security numbers" from newborn children of undocumented migrants, or instruct the State Department not to issue passports to people who can't prove their parents' citizenship. Those moves would spark the inevitable court showdown. Immigration restrictionists like Michael Hough at Numbers USA welcome the coming fight. "The intention wasn't for the system we have now," he said.