Citizenship of the birthright, the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution explained

The law has been the target of anti-immigration groups for years, claiming to have been abused by undocumented immigrants and companies peddling "birth tourism". But advocates say it was established in US law, upheld by the Supreme Court.

The announcement by Trump that he will end this practice by decree only a few days before the midterm elections is sure to spark immediate court challenges that could lead up to the Supreme Court . For now, here are some key aspects of citizenship.

What is birth citizenship?

The principle that every person born on American soil becomes a US citizen.

It was added to the Constitution in 1868 in the first sentence of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reads as follows: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are citizens of the United States and of the United States. State in which they are exercised.

The amendment was originally intended to grant citizenship to slaves released after the civil war, by quashing Dred Scott v. Sandford Supreme Court that prohibited African Americans from obtaining citizenship and the Naturalization Act of 1790 that did not confer citizenship to free citizens. white people "of good character".

In practice, it has become one of the cornerstones of US immigration law that has allowed anyone born in the United States to become citizens. Congress passed laws extending birthright citizenship to persons born in US territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands.

How many people benefit?

Citizenship was granted to approximately 275,000 babies born to undocumented immigrant parents in 2014, which represents about 7% of all births in the country that year, according to an analysis by the Pew Independent Research Center.

These figures represent a decline from the peak years of illegal immigration, which peaked in 2006, when approximately 370,000 children were born to undocumented migrants, or 9% of the population, according to the estimate. from Pew.

However, the vast majority of these births do not result from the passage of a pregnant woman to the border. Pew data show that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants who give birth in the United States – more than 90% – arrived in the country more than two years before giving birth.

These numbers do not include pregnant women who get a visa to travel to the United States shortly before giving birth. Russians regularly go to South Florida. There is a whole industry in China designed to help pregnant women deal with US immigration authorities so that they can enter the United States for the sole purpose of giving birth to US citizens.

According to an estimate from the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that opposes the original citizenship and advocates lower legal and illegal immigration levels, the total number of babies born through tourism Birth is around 36,000 per year.

How many countries grant it?

Trump said the United States is the only nation in the world to grant citizenship to the birthright. But he ignored the US neighbor to the north and dozens of other countries that also honor him.

The Center for Immigration Studies has identified at least 30 countries that grant citizenship. This list includes Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

John Skrentny, a sociologist at the University of California at San Diego, told Politifact in 2015 that birth citizenship was a vestige of the colonial period, when European countries granted indulgent laws on naturalization in order to conquer new lands. This is why this practice is almost exclusively used in the Western Hemisphere.

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