Jan. 27, Georgetowner online                     ESSAY about birthright citizenship.                        645 words

Executive Order Intends io Limit Birthright Citizenship, Not End It

By Margaret Orchowski

Please don’t panic or exaggerate the birthrights citizenship executive order. The much expected EO does not end birthright citizenship. It limits it. That does not take a constitutional amendment.  In fact it’s been changed by Congress and by a Supreme court decision several times in the past.

Here's the first sentence of the 14^th amendment:: “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 definitive word in that sentence is AND!  If the framers wanted anyone and everyone born in the US to be citizens they would not have added an “and” clause, AND means (if you recall grammar lessons) also, plus, as well as. 

 As you can see, the first sentence of the 14^th amendment states clearly that anyone claiming birthrights citizenship must fulfill TWO CONDITIONS:

1.     Be born in the United States

2.     Be subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.

The order would make ineligible for birthright citizenship anyone born in the U.S. whose parents have no lawful or legal authorization to be here or who are in the US on limited, temporary non-immigration permits such as foreign students and tourists.  

Changing who is eligible or not for birthrights citizenship has actually happened in the past via Congressional legislation and also a ruling of the Supreme Court.  In addition, Trump’s executive order reflects at least 15 years of proposals considered by Congress, one as HR1 (in the 112^thCongress.

The 14^th amendment was ratified on July 9, 1868 to “rightly repudiate the Supreme Court of the United States’s shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race”, as stated in Trump’s executive oder.  There were no national immigration laws until the 1880s; hence the amendment at the time did not address legal permanent, temporary or illegal immigration status of the birth parents.

But in 1868, according to the Congressional Research Office, there were FOUR defined groups of people in the United States who were NOT considered to be under the jurisdiction of U.S. laws and whose birth children were not allowed citizenship nor the right to vote.  

The jurisdictional status of two of these groups were changed over time.  The children of legal permanent Chinese immigrants were ruled by the Supreme Court in 1898 in U.S. vs. Wong (a very narrow ruling) to be under the jurisdiction.  In 1921 American Indians born and raised in a recognized Indian Nation were given the right to vote and hence citizenship by Congress in the 1921 Indian Voting Rights Act.

But two other groups remain excluded to this day: 

1)     the children of diplomats to the U.S, with immunity from U.S. laws; and 

2)     a rather nebulous universal rule according to the U.S., Congressional Research Office that the children born of recognized invaders are not under the jurisdiction of the invaded state.

Since 2010, Congress has addressed proposals to exclude birthright citizenship from TWO additional groups:  

1) children born of birth tourists (visitors who come on a three month permit with the sole purpose of getting citizenship for their child with no intention or right to immigrate and contribute to the U.S,) and 

2) children born of parents BOTH of whom are illegally in the country and have no right to be here,  In 2011 this 2 page bill was HR1 in the new Republican dominated 112^th congress.

Clearly President Trump’s executive order is not new, unconstitutional nor in any way racist. Read it here (2+ pages only) .  https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/

It may however be challenged and perhaps decided by the Supreme Court, for instance on whether or not illegal immigrants are under the jurisdiction of the U.S. or not.

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Margaret Orchowski is a credentialed Congressional reporter on immigration and author of two recent books (Nov 2024) on how immigration laws and policies evolved in the U.S.: “The 5 Basics Everyone should Know About Immigration” and a new paperback updated edition of “The law That Changed the Face of America” 

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