Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order is Even Worse than Expected – and Even More Blatantly Unconstitutional
Yesterday, I pointed out that Trump’s promised executive order denying birthright citizenship to undocumented immigrants was likely to be unconstitutional because it blatantly violates Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to anyone “born … in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” We now have the text of the order, and it is even worse than expected.
The order doesn’t just deny birthright citizenship to children of migrants who entered the US illegally. It also denies it to children of those who entered the US on perfectly legal temporary work and tourism visas. As Reason immigration writer Fiona Harrigan explains, This will affect children of many thousands of work visa holders, including H-1B visa holders much-loved by Elon Musk, among others.
In a recent Just Security article, I critiqued the (very weak) arguments that children of undocumented immigrants aren’t entitled to birthright citizenship because they are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. These arguments are even more absurd when it comes to children of legal visa holders. The latter and their parents are completely subject to US laws, arguably even more so than the undocumented. And the weak argument that children of undocumented immigrants don’t qualify because their parents are “invad
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