Three Paths to Ending Birthright Citizenship
The article discusses Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, analyzes its conflict with the Fourteenth Amendment and Supreme Court precedents, and explores whether there are workarounds and who the key figures would be if direct confrontation with the Constitution and precedents is not possible.
On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," aiming to end birthright citizenship. Does it conflict with the 14th Amendment? Can it be implemented? If it cannot directly confront the Constitution and Supreme Court precedents, are there ways to bypass them? Who will be the key figures? This video will discuss these questions.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1868, and its first sentence reads:
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that 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.
"Born in the United States" is easy to understand, but what does "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" mean? In the simplest terms: if you rob a nearby bank, the U.S. government will arrest and convict you, then you are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and your child born in the United States will have U.S. citizenship. Conversely, if you commit a crime in the United States but the U.S. government has no jurisdiction over you and cannot punish you under U.S. law, then your child will not receive U.S. citizenship.
According to this common understanding, whether they are U.S. citizens, green card holders, or holders of lawful temporary status such as student, work, or tourist visas, or undocumented immigrants who crossed the border illegally or overstayed, they are all subject to U.S. jurisdiction while in the United States, so their children born in the United States all have U.S. citizenship.
But Trump's executive order argues that this understanding is incorrect. In the past, some criticized the U.S. for imperialist long-arm jurisdiction; now we want to be a model student and exercise short-arm or even no-arm jurisdiction: although you live in the United States, as long as you do not have a green card—even if you hold a student or work visa—you are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and your children cannot obtain U.S. citizenship.
