Trump issued executive order 14160 titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” on Jan. 20, 2025.
In Section 1, the purpose of the order begins by stating the Fourteenth Amendment: “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.” The order goes on to say how the amendment has been misinterpreted and excludes people with birthright citizenship who were born in the US but not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
The two situations in which someone is not granted birthright citizenship whilst being born in the U.S. extend to: “(1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
This interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment extends to those illegally in the U.S., but also to those who are here legally. The list of Visa holders is expansive and is divided mostly into Immigrant and Non-immigrant visa categories. There are also cases of asylum seekers and those who have obtained refugee status.
To clarify, the definitions given at the bottom of the order include, but are not limited to, Mother, meaning the immediate female biological progenitor, and Father, meaning the immediate male progenitor.
The order was set to be implemented 30 days after it was issued, and would affect persons in the US 30 days after that. However, there have been at least nine lawsuits and various court cases prolonging the implementation of the order, including but not limited to: expectant Mothers, immigration organizations and the U.S. States.
Birthright citizenship has a long history in the U.S. In the Dred Scott v. Stanford case in 1857, Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet Scott, sued the St. Louis Circuit Court for their freedom because they lived in a state territory where slavery was prohibited. Scott lost the case against the state; he then sued again and the case made its way to the Supreme Court.
In the end, Scott and his family lost the case because the Supreme Court ruled that enslaved or freed people of African descent were not citizens and therefore could not have citizenship. The ruling caused a stir in the North, which eventually led to a catalyst for the Civil War.
U.S.-style birthright citizenship isn’t common, with 33 countries out of the 159 in the European University Institute (EUI) dataset, including the U.S., offering citizenship without at least one parent being a legal citizen or visa holder or an application being made for the child. However, this dataset only includes 159 out of the 195 countries globally.
When asked about how the new order could affect people who come or live in the U.S., Caleena Sterrett, a third-year studying accounting, said, “Yeah I definitely see it making it way more difficult for people to come to the U.S. Because it’s like, I even know people whose parents are born in Nigeria or something, and then they [their parents] got a visa to come to the U.S. and work. And so I think that would definitely make it harder for people that I know personally.”
The new order by President Trump would affect unauthorized or authorized immigrants. This also includes long-term permanent U.S. residents, students and anyone else whose parents were not “naturalized” in the U.S.
According to a study done by Pew Research, in 2023, about 245,000 babies were born to unauthorized immigrants, which made up about 9% of the babies born that year and about 15,000 babies were born from authorized immigrants.
In another study done by Pew Research, about 49% of Americans believe people who immigrated illegally should have citizenship. Almost all Americans, about 95%, believe people who immigrated legally should have birthright citizenship along with U.S. citizens.
The Supreme Court’s decision on Trump’s order will be made in June or July.
