“It’s ridiculous. We are the only country in the world that does this with the birthright, as you know, and it’s just absolutely ridiculous.” This is a remark of the 47th President of the United States on birthright citizenship, a right that has been given for more than 150 years. Despite what his remarks might suggest the US is not the only country in the world which offers birthright citizenship. The US is only one among nearly 30 other countries who offer unconditional birthright citizenship to anyone born on their soil. However, on January 20, 2025 President Trump signed an executive order revoking birthright citizenship for children born to immigrants on temporary visas and undocumented immigrants. As the courts scramble to block the executive order, many questions have arisen: why are the courts blocking the order? Can the courts kill the order altogether? What does this mean for the expecting immigrant mothers in the US now?
The executive order aims to revoke birthright citizenship from children born 30 days after January 20, 2025 and onwards. This order is doomed to wreck hundreds of thousands of lives, as it would deny citizenship to an approximated greater than 150,000 babies a year. Reportedly, “18 states, the District of Columbia, and the city and county of San Francisco” have filed a lawsuit in the District of Massachusetts to override the executive order. Legally, a court could override an executive order if it stands contrary to the Constitution. This leads to the suddenly controversial 14th Amendment: guaranteeing Equal Rights, Due Process, and currently the most contested part – Birthright Citizenship.
Trump’s executive order would inflict widespread harm by depriving U.S.-born children of citizenship, leaving them stateless and vulnerable to deportation, exploitation, and exclusion from essential benefits. It would, in the long run, increase the undocumented population and establish a permanent class of right-less and civic-disenfranchised individuals, undermining democracy and exacerbating social inequities generationally.
The courts play a pivotal role in upholding constitutional rights and as such can prevent the enforcement of Trump’s executive order by reaffirming birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. If the case eventually winds up in the Supreme Court, a definitive ruling would create a lasting precedent, closing down subsequent attempts to thwart birthright citizenship and confirming constitutional guarantees against discriminatory actions.