By Francesca Hangeior
United States President Donald Trump has been sued by immigration advocates following his move to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the country.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order at the White House aimed at ending the longstanding policy of birthright citizenship.
The order, which is set to take effect in 30 days, challenges more than a century of US policy and court interpretations of the Constitution.
According to a Bloomberg report, immigration advocates swiftly filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire on Monday evening, shortly after the order was signed.
During a briefing on Monday, Trump reiterated his commitment to the controversial policy change.
“The federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States. We are also going to enhance vetting and screening of illegal aliens,” he said.
Ending birthright citizenship has been a cornerstone of Trump’s Agenda47 policy platform, with the campaign promising to clarify the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The campaign emphasised that citizenship should apply “only to those both born in AND ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.”
To defend the policy, the Justice Department will need to convince courts to adopt a narrower interpretation of the Constitution, which some conservative legal scholars advocate.
The legal challenge could potentially reshape the understanding of the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people. Its Section 1 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.”
While the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” typically excludes children of foreign diplomats, the Supreme Court has consistently affirmed birthright citizenship for children born on US soil, despite numerous challenges over the years, according to the American Immigration Council.
Among the executive orders President Donald Trump signed just hours after taking office as the 47th President of the United States of America, USA, was the one directing government agencies to stop issuing citizenship documentation for babies born in the US to parents without legal status.
Immigration advocacy groups have already gone to court. It is expected that more lawsuits will follow, given the controversial nature of the orders.
Meanwhile, there is need to understand the workings of the American citizenship by birth, and then what Trump’s executive order means.
Passed by Congress June 13, 1866, and ratified July 9, 1868, the 14th Amendment extended liberties and rights granted by the Bill of Rights to formerly enslaved people.
A major provision of the 14th Amendment was to grant citizenship to “All persons born or naturalized in the United States,” thereby granting citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
Note that it was adopted in 1868 after the Civil War to clarify the status of formerly enslaved people.
However, it has long been read as giving citizenship to nearly all babies born on US soil.
This has seen many Nigerians, who have the means, preferring to give birth to babies in the US, as it makes them citizens with full rights as Americans.
With Trump’s executive order, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” taking effect from February 20, there is need to understand it workings.