Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de El Tiempo Latino.
Quick Take
President-elect Donald Trump has renewed his call to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose parents are not in the country legally. Online posts falsely claim this would strip four of Trump’s children of citizenship because of their mothers’ citizenship status when they were born.
Full Story
President-elect Donald Trump revived talk of abolishing birthright citizenship during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Dec. 8, saying he was “absolutely” going to end the policy. Trump also raised the issue in his first presidential campaign in 2016, but he never followed through with a promised executive order to challenge the longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.”
Host Kristen Welker asked Trump whether he still planned to end birthright citizenship through “an executive action” that reinterprets the 14th Amendment — as he promised in a 2023 campaign video — rather than through a constitutional amendment, as most legal scholars believe it would require.
“Well, we’re going to have to get it changed,” Trump said. “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it.”
Recent social media posts wrongly claim that if Trump is successful, four of his own children would not be U.S. citizens.
“Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship would mean 4 of his children wouldn’t be considered US citizens,” a Dec. 9 Threads post says. The post shows photos of the four adult children and the years they were born: Don Jr. in 1977, Ivanka in 1981, Eric in 1984, and Barron in 2006.
The post notes that Trump’s first wife, Ivana Trump, who was born in Czechoslovakia, became a U.S. citizen in 1988 after the birth of the three older children, and Melania Trump, who was born in Slovenia, obtained her U.S. citizenship in 2006, after Barron’s birth.
However, Robert Scott, an immigration attorney based in New York, told us in an email, “There’s really no sound argument that any of Donald’s children are not U.S. citizens.”
The 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.” The amendment, enacted during Reconstruction, was designed to guarantee civil and legal rights to formerly enslaved individuals. The Supreme Court has since clarified that birthright citizenship applies to anyone born on U.S. soil, with limited exceptions such as children of foreign diplomats.
We’ve previously addressed claims about Barron Trump’s citizenship. “Since Barron Trump was born in the U.S., and neither of his parents is/was a diplomat with diplomatic immunity when he was born, he is unquestionably a U.S. citizen under the 14th Amendment,” Scott said.
The same principle applies to Donald Jr., Ivanka and Eric, Scott said.
On his campaign website in 2023, Trump said his executive order would direct federal agencies to “require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident for their future children to become automatic U.S. citizens.”
In the case of each child, their father, Donald Trump, was a U.S. citizen at the time of their birth.
Scott noted that different rules apply to children born outside the United States, because being a father who is a U.S. citizen does not always automatically confer citizenship on a child born overseas. “Had Ivana and Donald had a child overseas (after 1971), while NOT married to each other, then that child would not necessarily be a U.S. citizen despite Donald’s U.S. citizenship,” he said.
This is irrelevant for Trump’s children, as all were born in New York while their parents were married.
Scott explained that even if Barron had been born outside the U.S., he would still qualify as a U.S. citizen at birth under section 301 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That law sets the citizenship requirements for those born abroad: at least one parent must be a U.S. citizen and must have lived in the United States for at least five years prior to the child’s birth abroad, including two years after the parent turned 14 years old. This condition would have been satisfied by Donald Trump.
Ivana Trump became a U.S. citizen in 1988, after the births of her three children with Donald Trump, who was a U.S. citizen born in New York. Melania Trump, who became a U.S. citizen in 2006 after Barron’s birth, also had no bearing on Barron’s automatic citizenship, as Trump’s status as a citizen sufficed under the law.
During the “Meet the Press” interview, Trump falsely claimed that the U.S. is “the only country” that has birthright citizenship. In fact, at least three dozen countries provide automatic citizenship to people born on their soil, including Canada and Mexico.
Trump has said he might try to change the law through an executive order. Constitutional law experts have said such an approach would face significant legal hurdles, as we’ve written.
“Revoking birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment,” Berta Hernández-Truyol, a law professor at the University of Florida, told us in an email. “The 14th Amendment provides an express textual guarantee, and neither the president nor Congress can unilaterally change that.”
As we said, in the NBC News interview Trump acknowledged, “We’ll maybe have to go back to the people.”
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Meta to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Meta has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Farley, Robert. “Trump’s Dubious Promise to End Birthright Citizenship.” FactCheck.org. 2 Jun 2023.
National Archives. “14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Civil Rights (1868).“
Donald Trump. “Agenda47: Day One Executive Order Ending Citizenship for Children of Illegals and Outlawing Birth Tourism.” donaldjtrump.com. 30 May 2023.
FBI Records: The Vault. Ivana Trump. Accessed 9 Dec 2024.
IMDb. “Barron Trump: Biography.” Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
IMDb. “Donald Trump Jr.: Biography.” Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
IMDb. “Eric Trump: Biography.” Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
IMDb. “Ivanka Trump: Biography.” Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
Kiely, Eugene, Robert Farley, D’Angelo Gore, Lori Robertson and Jessica McDonald. “FactChecking Trump’s ‘Meet the Press’ Interview.” 9 Dec 2024.
Scott, Robert. Immigration attorney, New York. Emails to FactCheck.org. 20 Nov 2024 and 9 Dec 2024.
Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol. Law professor, University of Florida. Email to FactCheck.org. 20 Nov 2024.
U.S. Department of State. Bureau of Consular Affairs. “Obtaining U.S. Citizenship for a Child Born Abroad.” Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
Drabold, Will. “Watch Melania Trump’s Speech at the Republican Convention.” Time. 18 Jul 2016.
Johnson, Jenna. “Here are 76 of Donald Trump’s many campaign promises.” Washington Post. 22 Jan 2016.
Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook: Citizenship. Accessed 10 Dec 2024.
Library of Congress. “United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898)” Accessed 11 Dec 2024.