What is birthright citizenship? The century-old principle Donald Trump wants to kill, explained

During his first term, Donald Trump was largely an ineffectual president. He didn’t build the wall, he didn’t “lock her up,” and he didn’t even manage to maintain the stellar economy handed down to him by President Obama.

This time around, he’s much more productive. While that wall will most certainly never happen, and we’ll have to go to war if we want a 51st state or a new canal, Trump’s agenda so far has been remarkably effective. His early months in office have seen POTUS 47 attack long-held American rights, threatening everything from free speech to birthright citizenship, and he’s facing little to no pushback.

Should Trump be successful in his aims to silence his critics, rob us of necessary programs like Social Security, and deport everyone who he disagrees with — legal citizen or no — our country will never be the same. He’s already done damage that will take decades to undo, but if he eliminates birthright citizenship it will affect millions of our neighbors, family members, and friends.

What is birthright citizenship?

Birthright citizenship has been around for more than a century, but it could be in its final weeks if Trump gets his way. The legal principle has been around since 1898 and enshrines, via the Fourteenth Amendment, birthright citizenship as a guaranteed right. It was passed via the Supreme Court’s United States v. Wong Kim Ark, and it comes in two forms: Ancestry-based citizenship and birthplace-based citizenship.

Ancestry-based citizenship extends citizenship to “children born abroad to U.S. citizens, provided statutory requirements are met,” according to the American Immigration Council. Birthplace-based citizenship, meanwhile, provides citizenship to “anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ status,” with exceptions that include children of foreign diplomats.

The Fourteenth Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.” That’s been around for a century and then some, and it’s not some expressly American ideal. Countries across the globe respect birthright citizenship — more than 30 of them, according to PBS, including that “51st state” Donny covets so much.

Why does Trump want to end birthright citizenship?

Trump’s been targeting birthright citizenship since his first term, but those longstanding threats feel much more dangerous this time around. Particularly after the 78-year-old implored the Supreme Court — which has shown distinct favoritism for the president, despite its nonpolitical aims — to allow him to bring the legal principle to an end.

The Trump administration issued a series of emergency appeals in mid-March, asking the Supreme Court to allow him to move forward with the process of ending birthright citizenship. The exact “why” is clear, if you look at Trump’s history. He’s consistently sold himself as the anti-immigration candidate, and in Trump’s eyes, everyone whose American roots don’t go back generations is automatically illegal. Hell, if they don’t fit his ideal description of an American, even generational citizens are at risk.

Appeals courts have broadly rejected Trump’s attacks on birthright citizenship, so he’s now attempting to go over their heads. The current Supreme Court has displayed frighteningly partisan tendencies of late, so it’s difficult to predict how it might rule, but with various judges labeling the attempt as “blatantly unconstitutional” and running “counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth,” any support of Trump’s request would certainly enhance fears that the Court is no longer independent.