The US President, Donald Trump, issued an executive order to end the practice of automatic birthright citizenship for children of those who are not lawfully present in the nation and those with temporary visas, including students, tourists, and workers. However, atleast 22 states have taken legal action against trump's bid to end birthright citizenship. The 'day one' executive order has started a long legal battle on a century old US Law.
What is US Birthright citizenship?
The US Law is based on a legal principle of 'Jus Soli' in Latin, which translates to "right of the soil," and is a centuries-old English practice. Based on this, the 14th amendment to the US Constitution under the 'citizenship clause says, almost everyone born in the United States may become a citizen of the country. Over the years, the law has gone through many changes to include people of colour and other races into the clause - people of colour, Chinese, indigenous peoples, etc...
Could Trump actually end birthright citizenship?
It is possible for Trump to end this. However, he would not be able to do it just with an executive order. Some 18 democratic attorneys general sued trump in federal court in Massachusetts, while another coalition of four states filed a similar lawsuit in Seattle.
This marks the first steps in what looks like a long legal battle over trump’s immigration policies that will likely end in the US Supreme court. The trump administration is using its executive order to play a long game. This involves getting the supreme court to re-interpret the 14th amendment. The alternative trump could use to override the citizenship clause is by ratifying a further amendment, which would need political backing.
Trump said, ‘we're the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know, and it's just absolutely ridiculous.’ However, citizenship by birthplace is a legal privilege in dozens of nations, including Canada and Mexico.
This policy change is anticipated to affect millions of Indian Americans living in the US. The US Census bureau reports that around 5 million Indian Americans reside in the United States, constituting roughly 1.47 per cent of the population. Among these, just 34 per cent are native-born Americans, while the remaining two-thirds are immigrants.