In the 2024 election, Donald J. Trump won the electoral vote, and his inauguration was held on January 20th, 2025. On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship, a right that has existed in the United States since the 19th century.

The right itself was added to the Constitution as the 14th Amendment in the 1860s, granting people born on U.S. soil citizenship. With removing this right, it poses many consequences to many individuals and could affect many families residing in the United States.

Image Credit: US Department of State, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CertificationofBirthAbroadofaCitizenoftheUnitedStatesofAmerica.png

What’s Birthright Citizenship?

On July 8th, 1866, the 14th amendment was passed by the Senate, and two years later, on July 9th, 1868, the amendment was ratified. In this amendment, it grants anyone born on U.S. soil citizenship even if their parents aren’t already citizens of the United States, even including people born on U.S. military bases in other countries and U.S. waters. “…the Fourteenth Amendment granted citizenship to all persons ‘born or naturalised in the United States,’ including formally enslaved people, and provided all citizens with ‘equal protection under the laws,’…” (U.S. Senate)

“Four decades later, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment guarantees U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the United States. The decision came in the case of Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to parents of Chinese descent.” (Howe, Amy) The case itself started when Wong Kim Ark was born on US soil while his parents resided in the country as Chinese citizens. 21 years later, Wong Kim Ark went to China to go visit his parents and when he returned back to the US, he was denied entry because he “was not a US citizen.” Because he was born in the United States and because his parents weren’t diplomats or government officials, he was granted U.S. citizenship.

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Threatening Our Rights

The right itself is being threatened by President Trump signing his executive order to revoke the right from citizens whose parents are undocumented immigrants or are considered to not be U.S. citizens. The order itself is referred to as Executive Order 14156: Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship. Considering that this is trying to revoke a right provided by the constitution, this causes concerns to rise on not only families’ safety, but also on the executive order being considered unconstitutional.

Executive Order 14156: Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, or Executive Order 14156 for short, has many sections describing its purpose and everything it covers, even covering the reasoning behind it. Although it mentions that Birthright Citizenship is connected to the 14th amendment, they state that it was always excluded from the amendment since it was made.

Section 1 of Executive Order 14156 states the purpose of the executive order. The White House website page titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship states “Among the categories of individuals born in the United States and not subject to the jurisdiction thereof, the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States.” This includes, when a mother and or father was visiting and not a resident of the United States or if the mother and or father were illegally residing in the United States.

Section 2 of Executive Order 14156 states the policy of the executive order. Section 2 states that any citizenship from people whose parents are like the two types mentioned before are invalid and cannot be accepted as a valid citizenship. Though this is the case, subsection (a) of this section states that this only applies to people who are born in the United States 30 days or more after the order is issued.

Section 3 of Executive Order 14156 states how the executive order will be enforced. “The Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Commissioner of Social Security shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the regulations and policies of their respective departments and agencies are consistent with this order, and that no officers, employees, or agents of their respective departments and agencies act, or forbear from acting, in any manner inconsistent with this order.” (White House)

Section 4 of Executive Order 14156 defines what Mother and Father mean while Section 5 states the General Provisions of the executive order. The White House website says that the order is in no way meant to impair the authority granted by law to any executive departments, executive agencies, the heads of those departments and agencies, or the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget which relates to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

Image Credit: Sean Spicer, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TrumpsigningExecutiveOrder13780_(cropped).jpg

The Consequences

Although some people see there being benefits to Executive Order 14156 being made, there are also consequences to it being approved as well. One consequence of this would be that some families could be split apart. At the same time of this executive order being issued, illegal or undocumented immigrants are being forcefully removed, or deported, from the country. Deportation rips apart families and if people from immigrant families who are citizens because of birthright citizenship taken away, they could be wrongfully removed from their homes.

Another consequence would be that children who were born on US soil with undocumented parents would create a new class of undocumented or stateless children. When it comes to policies being made, even including ones that are mainly about children, the people making the policies or laws don’t usually think about how they actually affect the children.

Taking Action Against the Order

Though not much is being done about it, there are still things being done to act against Executive Order 14156. In federal courts, the order has been blocked, not allowing the order to be passed. Judges who are making this call aren’t allowing it to be passed because they deem it as unconstitutional. Although it’s being blocked for now, it may not always be able to be blocked like this.

With the executive order being blocked for now, that’s the most action that can be done. Many citizens hope it stays this way because of the consequences it has and how drastically it could affect many people. Removing birthright citizenship was established for a reason and removing this right could be seen as unconstitutional even though President Trump says otherwise.