Who qualifies? Breaking down Trump's restriction on birthright citizenship
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Donald Trump has issued an executive order aiming to curtail the scope of birthright citizenship, a policy granting citizenship to anyone born on US soil. If upheld by courts, this order could hurt millions of immigrants, including those of Indian origin.
Currently, 22 states are challenging the order in court. The move could also hurt the US economy, a rich country that faces a declining fertility rate and relies on immigration to strengthen its workforce. America’s birthright citizenship is rooted in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted in 1868.
Section 1 of the Amendment 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This would seem fairly straightforward. However, the Trump administration has relied on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof", which qualifies the birthright to citizenship, to truncate that right.
This seems odd. The only limited exemption from US jurisdiction for anyone present in the US would be restricted to those present in the US on the diplomatic service of a foreign power. In general, just because someone is subject to the laws of a country where driving on the left side of the road is the norm, that does not mean they can do so in the US.
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