{"id":2949,"date":"2026-06-29T13:04:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2026-06-29T13:04:41","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:04:41","slug":"fact-check-a-look-at-the-trump-administrations-challenge-to-birthright-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2949","title":{"rendered":"FACT CHECK: A look at the Trump administration\u2019s challenge to birthright citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When it comes to birthright citizenship, the Trump administration hasn\u2019t been subtle about its views.<\/p>\n

The practice, which grants automatic citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil and which is soon to face Supreme Court judgment, is \u201ca disgrace,\u201d according to President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gravest and most preposterous of all constitutional abominations,\u201d top White House adviser Stephen Miller wrote on X.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cThe dumbest immigration policy in the world,\u201d Vice President JD Vance said in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we\u2019re the only country that has it,\u201d Trump said in one interview, a claim he has made repeatedly. And falsely.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court is expected to address the issue in the coming days, ruling on a Trump executive order that would upend more than a century of constitutional and legal history.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all up to a couple of people,\u201d he told reporters recently. \u201cI hope they do what\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer look at the facts<\/h2>\n

Birthright citizenship became law in 1868<\/strong><\/p>\n

Birthright citizenship became law in 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, in part to ensure that former slaves would be citizens.<\/p>\n

In the late 1800s, in the case of Wong Kim Ark, a man born in the U.S. to Chinese parents, it was expanded to include children of immigrants. In later cases, the Supreme Court ruled that anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, including if their parents are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.<\/p>\n

There are a tiny number of exceptions, mostly for children born in the U.S. to foreign diplomats.<\/p>\n

It became an accepted part of U.S. jurisprudence and, until Trump, few saw it as controversial.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not surprising, since until fairly recently even many Republicans spoke warmly about immigration.<\/p>\n

Recent immigrants \u201chave crawled over walls and under barbed wire and through mine fields\u201d to reach the U.S., President Ronald Reagan said at a 1984 naturalization ceremony in Detroit for new citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd all of them have added to the sum total of what your new country is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump casts birthright citizenship as a \u2018magnet for illegal immigration\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opposition to immigration has long been central to Trump\u2019s campaigns, and he has tapped into public frustration with issues like soaring illegal border crossings during the Biden administration, when border arrests from Mexico reached a record-high of 250,000 in just one month.<\/p>\n

To Trump, birthright citizenship is a \u201cmagnet for illegal immigration,\u201d with administration officials often pointing to illegal \u201cbirth tourism\u201d networks that arrange for non-U.S. citizens to come to the country solely to give birth.<\/p>\n

In legal arguments against the practice, government lawyers often focus on one phrase in the amendment: \u201csubject to the jurisdiction thereof.\u201d Breaking with most legal scholars, they insist that means the U.S. can deny citizenship to babies born to women who are in the country illegally.<\/p>\n

But during April\u2019s oral arguments on the case, even some conservative Supreme Court justices questioned that approach.<\/p>\n

Trump says only the US has birthright citizenship. Is that true?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that the practice isn\u2019t the norm around the world. In most countries, a child\u2019s citizenship follows that of its parents, no matter where the birth takes place.<\/p>\n

Yet dozens of countries other than the United States have unrestricted birthright citizenship. Most are in the Americas, including Canada, Mexico and many nations in Central and South America.<\/p>\n

Dozens of other countries, from Germany to Australia, have a mixed approach, using a variety of principles, including parenthood, place of birth, residency and ethnicity, to decide a child\u2019s citizenship.<\/p>\n

Find AP Fact Checks here: https:\/\/apnews.com\/APFactCheck.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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When it comes to birthright citizenship, the Trump administration hasn\u2019t been subtle about its views. The practice, which grants automatic citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil and which is soon to face Supreme Court judgment, is \u201ca disgrace,\u201d according to President Donald Trump. \u201cThe gravest and most preposterous of all constitutional abominations,\u201d top […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[4759,4677,4760,252,4761,4762],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation-2","tag-14th-amendment","tag-birthright-citizenship","tag-fact-check","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-the-supreme-court","tag-trump-executive-order"],"yoast_head":"\nFACT CHECK: A look at the Trump administration\u2019s challenge to birthright citizenship - Denver Moving Chronicle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/denvermovingchronicle.com\/?p=2949\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FACT CHECK: A look at the Trump administration\u2019s challenge to birthright citizenship - Denver Moving Chronicle\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When it comes to birthright citizenship, the Trump administration hasn\u2019t been subtle about its views. 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