‘Anchor baby’: Trump wants to end citizenship rights for those born in the US

More than 5 million minors live with their undocumented parents in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Removing this right could double the number of undocumented people, from 11 million to 24 million by 2050.

Trump refers to these people as “anchor babies.” At the age of 21, the child can request citizenship rights from their parents as well.

Experts say Trump’s proposal is legally challengeable. “An executive order cannot change the Constitution”, explains Daniel Toledo, a lawyer specializing in International Law. Citizenship by birth is assured by the 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Amending the Constitution requires a long and politically complex legislative process. According to Toledo, “any change would depend on approval by two-thirds of Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states.”

Birth citizenship is a tradition of colonized countries, used to form national populations. “In technical language, we call this jus solis (legal principle that determines a person’s citizenship based on place of birth)“, explains Luiz Philip Ferreira de Oliveira, constitutional lawyer.

Trump must find barriers in Congress

Bipartisan track record. Andréia Fressatti Cardoso, a PhD student in Political Science at USP, who studies human rights, immigration in the United States and undocumented people, highlights that, despite a Republican majority in Congress, the migration issue has historically received bipartisan opposition. “Even presidents like Ronald Reagan approved a broad amnesty for immigrants in the 1980s,” he recalls.