Donald Trump signs executive order to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order this Monday that seeks to deny citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.

The order seeks to modify the current interpretation of the Amendment 14 of the US Constitution., which establishes that every person born on US soil automatically obtains nationality, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.

The measure would only apply to future births, according to a member of the Donald Trump this January 20 in the morning at a press conference, before the new president took office.

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In practice, the elimination of birthright citizenship would prevent the State Department from issuing passports to children born to undocumented parents and the Social Security Administration from recognizing them as citizenswhich would hinder their access to basic rights and the possibility of working legally in the country.

Eliminating birthright citizenship has been a recurring demand from conservative groups. Donald Trump had already threatened to revoke this right through an executive order during his first term (2017-2021), although he never did so.

The White House has not detailed how this measure, which is expected to face legal challenges in court and which many experts consider unconstitutional, will be implemented.

To redefine birthright citizenship, the most direct route would be to propose a constitutional amendment, which would require a two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate, as well as the ratification of three quarters of the states, as historian Scott Bomboy recently explained in an analysis published by the National Constitution Center, an institution dedicated to the study of the Constitution.

There are no exact figures on the number of children born in the US to undocumented parents. According to the most recent data from the Pew Research Center, in 2022 there were approximately 1.3 million American adults whose parents lacked legal status in the country.

A 2018 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment means that children of undocumented immigrants are American citizens.

However, the study cautioned that the Supreme Court “has not firmly settled the issue in the modern era,” so potential legal challenges could change the current interpretation.

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