The Trump administration has announced a new attempt to limit birthright citizenship, with a pair of executive orders issued this week. The orders aim to restrict automatic citizenship to specific categories of people, including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations, as well as anyone considered an ‘alien enemy’ of the United States.

Background

The 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, with a few exceptions. However, the Trump administration’s new orders would sharply expand those exemptions, disqualifying babies who are products of ‘birth tourism’ and children of anyone working in a foreign embassy or representing a foreign government.

Citizenship through surrogacy has also become a concern for Republican members of Congress, with some proposing a bill to restrict citizenship for children of noncitizen parents born to surrogates in the U.S. Law professor César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández has raised concerns about the new executive order, stating that it could raise new legal questions and that the 14th Amendment does not mention or hint at surrogates.

Reaction

Advocates against the proposed changes believe that the constitutional amendment and Supreme Court decisions will again stop the administration’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. The American Civil Liberties Union has stated that ‘birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, and no amount of executive orders is going to change that.’ The Trump administration has argued that the new orders are necessary to prevent ‘birth tourism’ and to ensure that citizenship is only granted to those who are truly eligible.

Original reporting: Dallas TX News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.