Trump Ending “Birthright Citizenship”: What Are Its Effects?

Donald Trump was sworn in as the president of the United States of America on Monday. After assuming the president’s office for the second time, he signed multiple executive orders. One of them was about ending birthright citizenship. This is a major decision in the history of the United States.

As per this rule, a newborn child will be given US citizenship only if at least one parent is a US citizen, a legal permanent resident (green card holder) or a member of the US military. Trump wanted to end this birthright citizenship as he finds it “ridiculous.” Later, his team explained that ending birthright citizenship would lower the illegal immigrant population in the country.

Until now, any child born in the USA automatically becomes a country’s citizen irrespective of parents’ immigration status. From now on, that will not be the case. According to the note released by the White House, this rule will not only affect the parents who are illegal immigrants but also the parents who are on temporary work visas, visiting visas and student visas.

The rule will also impact Indians in various ways. Currently, the Indian-American community is one of the rapidly growing communities in the US. As of 2024, there are more than 5.4 millions Indian-Americans in the US, which is around 1.47% of the total population. Once this rule gets implemented, children born to Indian immigrants who are on temporary work visas or the ones without green cards, will not get US citizenship. Thousands of children are born to Indian Americans every year. They will be affected by this rule.

Also, US-born children can no longer petition to bring their parents back to the US once they are 21 if they don’t get birthright citizenship. On top of it, the rule will also end “birth tourism” where woman especially travel to the US to get their babies delivered so that they can get direct citizenship.