For generations, people who have lived and worked in the United States have assumed that if they end up with a child there, that child will be entitled to citizenship, which comes with official documentation. and government ID.
That could change soon.
US President Donald Trump issued a statement executive order on his first day in office that surprised immigration watchers in his field.
Everyone expectation attempt to end birthright citizenship for the children of people who entered the US illegally, overturning more than 125 years of accepted constitutional law. But then he went a step further. As it is currently written, his order applies to millions more people working legally within the US on nonimmigrant work visa – including many Canadians – sending additional families into legal limbo. Only children with at least one permanent resident will be saved.
“It's unprecedented,” said Angela Maria Kelley, senior counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“This would be a historic waste of our national identity. And just the basic principle that if you are born here, you belong here. And that your parents' future is not your future.”
The order is not retroactive – it only applies to future births, starting next month. And it will be challenged in court, already facing several lawsuits.
In the meantime, it means uncertainty for people, and what could be a year-long legal battle, all the way to the US Supreme Court.
The current order appears to ban citizenship documents for a wide range of children, from those of technical workers on temporary visas, to long-term workers in international institutions such as the United Nations.
It says no US official issues or accepts citizenship documents for a child of a mother on legal but temporary status, such as a work, student or tourist visa, when the father is not a citizen or a naturalized person. permanent residence.
Challenge 125 years of law
Trump knows legal challenges are coming. He admitted as much when he signed the order in the Oval Office on Monday night.
“That's a good one. A birthday. That's a big one,” Trump said, speaking to reporters as he signed a series of executive orders.
He expressed confidence that he has legal reasons for doing this. But he also appeared ignorant of the most basic truth of the matter.
Trump said the US is the only country with birthright citizenship: “It's just terrible.”
But citizenship as a birthright is granted by dozens of countries around the world, such as the most of America – including Canada.
Others have it with conditions, and some do not have it at all, including most of southern and eastern Europe, North Africa and Asia. The change will make things especially complicated, Kelley said, for people who have a child in the US, if their home country doesn't recognize a birth outside the country.
This would put their children at risk of becoming stateless, she said. Pregnant women in the US would not only need to check American law, but also the law in their own country, and decide where to deliver.
Who is at risk
A lawsuit filed immediately against the order listed some of the potential impacts on people, including one suit from more than 20 blue states.
Unreported numbers become stateless, the suit says — invalid for everything from a driver's license to a Social Security number and the ability to work legally.
“All will be portable, and many will be stateless,” the suit said.
“The result will be a multi-generational class of marginalized families, who with each generation will become more disconnected from any country but the United States, but will forever remain foreigners. “
another suit carrying testimonials about people he affected. It was filed by Indonesian and Latino community groups in US District Court in New Hampshire.
One couple came to the US on tourist visas in 2023, he says, and have applied for asylum; they have a baby in a month.
Another woman has lived in the US for over 20 years; she was born illegitimately as a child, and is now in what is called Program dreamers. She has a baby due in March.
They are among several news that have been announced in the suit of people without official documents, keeping their identity secret.
The backstory begins with the Civil War
Their case could now depend on the explanation of a 157-year-old man constitutional amendment.
Written after slavery, the 14th Amendment rejection of the Dred Scott case, a racist ruling by the US Supreme Court stating that the descendants of African American slaves could not become citizens.
The 1868 amendment clarified that US citizenship belonged to all persons born in the United States and “subject to its jurisdiction.”
The current fight depends on that last part in values.
Historically, it has been defined to mean almost everyone born in the U.S. except for certain children. categories of diplomabenefiting from full diplomatic immunity.
But Trump's allies are challenging the most important issue on this issue, involving the US-born son of Chinese immigrants.
Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco's Chinatown in 1873. Twenty-two years later, he visited his parents' homeland, China, and was denied re-entry to the US because and he was not a citizen.
And, he was ineligible for citizenship because of a law against Chinese at the time.
He fought the case all the way up to the High Court. In 1898, that court management6-2, that Wong was, indeed, an American.
The ruling not only marked the 14th Amendment; he also made it clear that the members of Congress who drafted the amendment were aware that it could apply not only to former slaves but also to immigrants.
A minority of judges criticized the decision at the time, and because then, some have called it a selective reading of the drafters' intent.
Critics argue that the amendment was never intended to be applied across the board. And after 127 years, the opponents of the presidential decision got to try to challenge it.
“The privilege of United States citizenship is a precious and profound gift,” read the opening words of Trump's executive order, as he went on to establish new categories of people who are not eligible for it.
