For generations, people who lived and worked in the United States assumed that if they had a child there, that child would have the right to citizenship, accompanied by official documents and identification.
This may change soon.
issued by US President Donald Trump executive order on his first day in office, surprising immigration observers with its scope.
All expected him to try to strip birthright citizenship from children of people who came to the United States illegally, wiping out more than 125 years of established constitutional law. But then he went a step further. As currently written, his order applies millions more people working legally in the USA nonimmigrant work visas – including many Canadians – pushing more families into a legal limbo. Only the children of at least one permanent resident will be saved.
“This is unprecedented,” said Angela Maria Kelley, senior counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“It would be a historic upending of our national identity. And just the basic rule that if you were born here, you belong here. And that your parents' past is not your future.”
The order is not retroactive – it only applies to future births starting next month. This will be challenged in court as there are already many lawsuits pending.
In the meantime, it means uncertainty for people and a potentially multi-year, epic legal battle all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The current regulation appears to prohibit the issuance of citizenship documents to a wide range of children, from technology workers on temporary visas to long-time employees of international institutions such as the United Nations.
It says no U.S. official may present or accept citizenship documents to the child of a mother with legal but temporary status, such as a work, student or tourist visa, if the father is not a citizen or permanent resident.
Questioning 125 years of law
Trump knows legal challenges are coming. He confirmed this by signing the order in the Oval Office on Monday evening.
“That's good. Birthright. This is important,” Trump said, speaking to reporters as he signed subsequent orders.
He expressed his belief that there was a legal basis for this. Yet he seemed unaware of the most basic fact of the matter.
Trump claimed that the United States is the only country where citizenship is granted by birth: “It's just absolutely ridiculous.”
However, citizenship as a birthright is granted by dozens of countries around the world, e.g the vast majority of the Americas — including Canada.
Others have the condition and some do not have it at all, including most of southern and eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. Kelley said this change will especially complicate the situation for people who have a baby in the U.S. if their home country does not recognize extraterritorial births.
This would risk rendering their children stateless, she added. Pregnant women living in the U.S. will need to not only familiarize themselves with U.S. law, but also the law in their own country and decide where to give birth.
Who is at risk
Lawsuits that were immediately filed against this order listed some of the potential human impacts, including one suit from over 20 blue states.
According to the lawsuit, countless people will be stateless – ineligible for everything from a driver's license to a Social Security number and the ability to work legally.
“They will all be deportable, and many will be rendered stateless,” the lawsuit said.
“The result will be a multigenerational class of marginalized families who, with each generation, will be increasingly disconnected from any country outside the United States, and yet will forever remain outsiders.”
Other suit it included testimonies about people affected by the disease. The lawsuit was filed by Indonesian and Latino community groups in U.S. District Court in New Hampshire.
According to the report, one couple came to the US on tourist visas in 2023 and applied for asylum; They have a baby due in a month.
Another woman has lived in the US for over 20 years; she was imported illegally as a child and is currently staying in the so-called Dreamers program. She will give birth to a baby in March.
This is one of several anecdotes mentioned in the lawsuit about people without official documents keeping their identities secret.
The plot begins with the Civil War
Their case may now depend on the 157-year-old's interpretation constitutional amendment.
Written in the wake of slavery, Amendment 14 negated the Dred Scott case, a racist U.S. Supreme Court ruling declaring that descendants of African-American slaves could not be citizens.
The 1868 Amendment clarified that American citizenship was available to anyone born in the United States and “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
The current fight is based on that last part in quotes.
Historically, this has been interpreted to mean virtually everyone born in the US, except some children categories of diplomatsenjoying full diplomatic immunity.
But Trump's allies are questioning the most important case on the issue, involving the U.S.-born son of Chinese migrants.
Wong Kim Ark was born in 1873 in San Francisco's Chinatown. Twenty-two years later, he visited his parents' homeland, China, and was denied re-entry to the United States due to his lack of citizenship.
And he was ineligible for citizenship for a reason anti-Chinese law then.
He fought his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1898 this court ruled6-2 that Wong was in fact American.
The ruling not only pointed to the 14th Amendment; it also made clear that the members of Congress who drafted the amendment realized that it could affect not only former slaves but also immigrants.
A minority of judges criticized the decision at the time and From at the time, some called it a selective reading of the authors' intentions.
Critics say the amendment was never intended to be applied so broadly. And after 127 years, opponents of this decision forced the president to try to challenge it.
“The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” reads the opening words of Trump's executive order, which goes on to list new categories of people who are currently ineligible.