Birthright Citizenship Becoming Major 2024 Issue

As the worst border crisis in American history continues to spiral out of control, the longstanding debate on the question of birthright citizenship for the children of illegal aliens—which often goes overlooked in immigration policy disputes—is quickly resurfacing as a major issue in the 2024 presidential election. In 2018, former President Donald Trump first floated the idea of ending the current practice of granting automatic citizenship to the children of illegal aliens born on U.S. soil—proposing to do so via executive order. As Trump argued at the time, this grant of birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens was a major incentive for illegal immigration. In May, Trump pledged that he would follow through on that executive order on day one if he is re-elected in 2024. “This policy [birthright citizenship] is a reward for breaking the laws of the United States and is obviously a magnet, helping draw the flood of illegals across our borders,” Trump stated in a policy video. “The United States is among the only countries in the world that says that even if neither parent is a citizen nor even lawfully in the country, their future children are automatic citizens the moment the parents trespass onto our soil. As has been laid out by many scholars, this current policy is based on a historical myth, and a willful misinterpretation of the law by the open borders advocates.” As Trump notes in the video, some scholars argue that the constitutional basis for birthright citizenship is virtually nonexistent. As Hillsdale College professor and former Trump White House official Michael Anton put it in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, “the entire case for birthright citizenship is based on a deliberate misreading of the 14th Amendment.” Anton further notes, “The purpose of that amendment was to resolve the question of citizenship for newly freed slaves.” But today, the provisions of the amendment have since been distorted by the left and broadened beyond its original scope. The practice of granting birthright citizenship to illegal aliens, Anton concluded, is an “absurdity—historically, constitutionally, philosophically and practically.” Proponents of automatic citizenship for the children of illegal alien often insist that efforts to outlaw the practice are unconstitutional because the Supreme Court previously ruled in its favor. But this reasoning is again a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts. As legal scholar Edward Erler noted in a 2015 op-ed, “There has never been an explicit holding by the Supreme Court that the children of illegal aliens are automatically accorded birthright citizenship.” In the 1898 Supreme Court case United States vs. Wong Kim Ark, which liberals often cite as proof of the practice’s supposed basis in the Constitution, the Court ruled that children of legal immigrants were entitled to birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. The Court’s ruling, however, did not apply to illegal aliens. The onus for clarifying the original meaning of the 14th Amendment, then, falls on the other two branches of government—and could likely be most efficiently achieved through executive order. “Such an order would, of course, immediately be challenged in the courts,” Anton stipulated in his Post op-ed. “But officers in all three branches of government—the president no less than judges—take similar oaths to defend the Constitution. Why shouldn’t the president act to defend the clear meaning of the 14th Amendment?” In his May policy video, Donald Trump pledged to do precisely this if he returns to the Oval Office as the 47th President. “I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” Trump said. “My policy will choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration, deter more migrants from coming, and encourage many of the aliens Joe Biden has unlawfully let into our country to go back to their home countries.” Since Trump’s policy announcement in May, other presidential hopefuls—including Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Nikki Haley—have followed suit, signaling voters’ growing discontent with Joe Biden’s open-borders radicalism and the increasing awareness among Republican leaders that birthright citizenship can, and should, be brought to an end. As the Republican primary season advances, debates over the legality and political practicality of ending birthright citizenship are almost certain to intensify. And come January 2025, a Republican president could be in a position to finally end the practice, restore American sovereignty, and faithfully uphold the principles of the Constitution. Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.