If President Donald Trump succeeds in ending birthright citizenship for illegal migrants and other noncitizens, he would be putting to bed a practice that has been taken advantage of by potentially millions of foreign nationals in recent years.
As many as 250,000 babies were born to illegal migrant parents in 2023, according to a recently updated estimate by Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). To put that figure into perspective, the number surpassed the rate of births in most states and nearly made up seven percent of all births in the country that year.
“U.S. citizenship is the most valuable status in the entire world, because you get a passport, you get the protection of the United States government, and you get to vote,” Art Arthur, a resident fellow at the CIS, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “So when you expand the population of people who are here illegally, particularly couples, you get to a situation where this is an increasingly salient issue.”
“And probably the best way to say this is kudos to the Trump administration for actually forcing the issue so that we can get a resolution,” Arthur said.
Hours after taking office, Trump signed an executive order removing birthright citizenship guarantees for individuals born to parents living in the U.S. unlawfully or on temporary visas, following through on a pledge he repeatedly made on the campaign trail. It took less than a day for Democrats and other liberal organizations to challenge the move, with the ACLU and a coalition of state attorneys general suing to block the order.
A federal judge has since put the order on hold, and legal experts agree the fight will likely fall into the hands of the Supreme Court justices.
Whichever way the case is decided, the results will have a major impact on the sheer number of individuals born every year in the country and the millions of foreign nationals who may wish to enter with the goal of giving birth on American soil.
The estimated 250,000 births to illegal migrant parents in 2023 indicates that the practice is rising. In the lawsuit against the executive order, the plaintiffs cited a report by the National Demographics Corporation which estimated that 153,000 children across the U.S. were born to parents who lacked lawful immigration status in 2022.
The lawsuit additionally cited a 2014 CIS study that found over 125,000 children born in 2014 to illegal migrant mothers in plaintiff states alone.
Birthright citizenship for illegal aliens is costing U.S. taxpayers billions every single year. Roughly $2.3 billion in government funding was spent on children born to illegal migrant parents in 2014 alone, according to another CIS study that concluded nearly 87% of illegal migrant households with a child used at least one welfare program in 2015.
Trump’s order would not only strip birthright citizenship to those who are born to illegal migrant parents, but also many who are born to parents visiting the country on temporary visas. The executive order seeks to prevent individuals born in the U.S. from obtaining citizenship if they do not have at least one parent who is a lawful permanent resident or U.S. citizen, according to the White House.
The stipulation on lawful permanent residency is meant to address birth tourism — a phenomena in which tens of thousands of babies are born every year to foreign nationals who entered the country legally, but on a temporary visa with the sole purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil and obtaining the benefits that come with having an American child.
U.S. authorities have uncovered business schemes that completely revolve around promoting and providing services to non-citizens hoping to give birth on American soil. For foreign nationals with the financial resources to do so, they’re able to repeatedly take advantage of birth tourism.
“I had a case involving a woman who was a national of a country far, far away from San Francisco, California, but every time she was about eight months pregnant, she would fly to San Francisco,” Arthur, a former trial attorney, told the DCNF. “She would give birth at the Charity Hospital and she would stay there for two weeks to a month postpartum, and then she would go to the State Department office down on Market Street in San Francisco.”
“She’d get a passport, she’d get on a plane and fly home, and when INS [the former Immigration and Naturalization Service] stopped her, she had done this four times,” Arthur said. “You know, that’s an abuse of the system.”
Despite the rampant abuse by both illegal migrants and birth tourists, many Democrats are keen on fighting the Trump administration tooth and nail to keep birthright citizenship available to nearly all who are born on American soil — U.S. law does make an exception for babies born to foreign diplomats.
The lawsuit, led by 22 state attorneys general, was paused by U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, after a hearing Thursday.
The fight centers completely on the first sentence in the first section of the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people, which states: “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 phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has attracted different interpretations over the years about birthright citizenship.
The Trump administration argues its executive order seeks to clarify that the meaning of this phrase within the 14th Amendment pertains only to U.S. citizens or those with lawful permanent residency, not anyone born on U.S. soil.
While Democrats are aiming to block the order, the White House signaled it is prepared to take the fight all the way to the nation’s highest court.
“The Department of Justice will vigorously defend President Trump’s EO, which correctly interprets the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the [Supreme] Court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our Nation’s laws enforced,” a Department of Justice spokesperson previously said to the Daily Caller.
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