Trump executive order attempts to eliminate birthright citizenship for millions

On 2025-01-20, President Trump signed Executive Order 14156 aiming to strip citizenship from children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents (Source: Immigration Impact).

Three federal judges in separate states blocked Executive Order 14156 as “blatantly unconstitutional” and contrary to 127 years of Supreme Court precedent (Sources: NPR; ACLU).

United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) established by a 6–2 Supreme Court ruling that birth on U.S. soil grants citizenship regardless of parents’ immigration status (Sources: NPR; Immigration Impact).

Plaintiffs estimated that Executive Order 14156 would render over 150,000 newborns stateless each year, depriving them of basic services and legal status (Source: Reuters).

Twenty-two state attorneys general filed lawsuits in federal court challenging Executive Order 14156 as unconstitutional federal overreach (Source: Reuters).

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on May 15, 2025, regarding nationwide injunctions against Executive Order 14156 (Source: Reuters).

Executive Order 14156 defines “father” and “mother” as “immediate biological progenitors” and extends its restrictions to children born to both undocumented immigrants and those with “lawful but temporary” status (Sources: White House; NPR).

The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens,” a principle that Executive Order 14156 seeks to reinterpret in violation of long-standing precedent (Sources: White House; Immigration Impact).