Unrestricted birthright citizenship devalues America
by Alfonso Aguilar · The Washington TimesOPINION:
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on President Trump’s executive order denying automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to temporary visa holders and illegal migrants.
As a former chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship and a son of immigrants from Latin America, I see this issue as deeply personal.
Like so many others, my family came to the United States in search of freedom, opportunity and fairness. We built our lives here with deep gratitude and a lasting commitment to and love for America.
This is why I hope the Supreme Court concludes that the president’s decision to limit birthright citizenship is constitutional and represents a necessary step toward preserving the meaning and value of American citizenship.
Citizenship should not be treated as a mere accident of birth. In a diverse nation such as the U.S., it must instead reflect loyalty, commitment and a genuine dedication to the principles that define our republic.
The drafters of the 14th Amendment fully understood the importance of love of country as the basis for citizenship. In their carefully written text, they made clear that citizenship requires not just birth in the United States but also being “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” a phrase rooted in Anglo-American common law that means political allegiance to the nation.
In other words, only children born here of parents who are loyal and faithful to America should be considered citizens.
Because allegiance is essential to citizenship, common law has long recognized exceptions to birthright citizenship — exceptions the Supreme Court has upheld. Children born to foreign diplomats, for example, are not granted U.S. citizenship at birth because their parents owe political allegiance to another nation rather than the United States.
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Yet despite this legal tradition and established case law, for more than a century, the federal government has automatically extended to temporary visitors and undocumented immigrants citizenship to children born on U.S. soil. Rather than treating these cases as exceptions to birthright citizenship, the government has adopted an expansive interpretation that lacks a coherent constitutional basis.
Temporary visa holders, whether visitors, workers or students, are by definition present in the United States for a limited period. As such, they retain political allegiance to their home countries.
Undocumented immigrants, as the America First Policy Institute noted in an amicus brief filed in support of the Trump administration’s position, “are necessarily in enmity with the country they enter because they have broken the law by crossing its borders.”
By violating U.S. law, they demonstrate a lack of allegiance to the legal and political order of the United States.
Mr. Trump’s executive order seeks to correct this constitutional anomaly by restricting birthright citizenship according to its original meaning. Under it, only children born on U.S. soil to at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent would be recognized as citizens.
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The president’s efforts, of course, also would produce important practical benefits. They would help curb the growing practice of traveling to the United States, legally or illegally, for the sole purpose of giving birth so that a child may obtain U.S. citizenship.
Over the past three decades, hundreds of thousands of children have been born each year to undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders. According to a recent Pew study, in 2023 alone, approximately 320,000 children — about 9% of all U.S. births — were born to these parents.
Roughly 260,000 of those children would not have qualified for birthright citizenship had the executive order already been in effect.
For millions of immigrants from Latin America, such as my parents, who followed the law, waited years to enter the United States legally and committed themselves to making America their home, it is deeply frustrating to see the government reward those who lack a stake in the country or have broken its laws with automatic citizenship for their children.
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Ending automatic birthright citizenship reinforces a fundamental truth: American citizenship is a privilege rooted in loyalty to our nation. It should not be reduced to a technicality of birthplace or treated as a mere benefit.
The Supreme Court should uphold the true meaning of the 14th Amendment and ensure that U.S. citizenship remains a sacred bond between a nation and its people, built on mutual responsibility, shared values and allegiance.
• The author is a senior adviser to America First Works and a former chief of the U.S. Office of Citizenship.