Donald Trump has already signed a number of executive orders since taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, January 20.
The 78-year-old Republican deferred the TikTok ban and withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization (WHO), among other legally enforceable written directives to the federal government that do not need congressional approval.
Some are wondering what will happen to his youngest son Barron Trump’s US citizenship after he taken some very serious efforts to revoke birthright status.
Birthright citizenship meaning
Trump is most likely referring to the legal doctrine of jus soli, or “right of the soil” in Latin, when he makes reference to birthright citizenship.
The first sentence of the 14th Amendment to the US constitution establishes the principle of birthright citizenship: “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
In summary, regardless of the citizenship of their parents, everybody born in the nation is granted citizenship by the law. Accordingly, almost anybody born in the United States is instantly granted U.S. citizenship.
What does Trump’s executive order do?
The order in question aims to stop automatically granting US citizenship to children born in the US without at least one parent who is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
For such children who match the requirements, it prevents federal agencies from issuing or accepting documents confirming US citizenship within 30 days of the order’s signing.
Children born to undocumented immigrants and those lawfully in the US on temporary visas are the main targets of the executive order.
What will happen to Barron Trump?
Barron was born in Manhattan in 2006; his mother, Melania Trump, is Slovenian.
Trump was a “natural-born US citizen” at the time of his birth, and his mother was a lawful permanent resident with a green card since 2001, so he is a US citizen by birth.
Thus, he would not be affected by the presidential order.
Can Trump actually end birthright citizenship?
The 14th Amendment protects birthright citizenship, and any attempt to repeal it is likely to face instant judicial challenges.
This implies that Trump is unlikely to be able to revoke birthright citizenship, and he most certainly won’t be able to do so via executive order.
