WASHINGTON (AP) - President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end birthright citizenship as soon as he gets into office to make good on campaign promises aiming to restrict immigration and redefining what it means to be American.
But any efforts to halt the policy would face steep legal hurdles.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the United States automatically becomes an American citizen. It's been in place for decades and applies to children born to someone in the country illegally or in the U.S. on a tourist or student visa who plans to return to their home country.
It's not the practice of every country, and Trump and his supporters have argued that the system is being abused and that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen.
"We´re going to end that because it´s ridiculous," he said during an interview Sunday on NBC´s "Meet the Press".
Trump and other opponents of birthright citizenship have argued that it creates an incentive for people to come to the U.S. illegally or take part in "birth tourism," where pregnant women enter the U.S. specifically so their children can have citizenship before returning home.
"Simply crossing the border and having a child should not entitle anyone to citizenship," said Eric Ruark, director of research for NumbersUSA, which argues for reducing immigration.
The organization supports changes requiring at least one parent be a permanent legal resident or a U.S. citizen for their children to automatically get citizenship.
"One of our big benefits is that people born here are citizens, are not an illegal underclass. There´s better assimilation and integration of immigrants and their children because of birthright citizenship," said Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the pro-immigration Cato Institute.
In 2019, the Migration Policy Institute estimated that 5.5 million children under age 18 lived with at least one parent in the country illegally, representing 7% of the U.S. child population. The vast majority were U.S. citizens.
The nonpartisan think tank stated during Trump's campaign in 2015 that repealing birthright citizenship would create "a self-perpetuating class excluded from social membership."
In July 1868, Congress ratified the 14th Amendment after Civil War assuring all persons born or naturalized in America are citizens including Black people:
"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge privileges or immunities..."However,it wasn't until1924that Native Americanswere grantedcitizenship.
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