During an interview with Fox News, U.S. Vice President JD
Vance stated that President Donald Trump's administration continues to evaluate
various alternatives to modify how the principle of birthright citizenship is
applied in the country.
According to Vance, the presidential team is analyzing
various legal and administrative options with the goal of limiting automatic
access to U.S. citizenship for the children of people who are in the country
illegally. In his remarks, the vice president affirmed that the issue is at a
critical juncture and indicated that the administration is working to, in his
words, "close that loophole," considering that the current system
incentivizes illegal immigration.
During the interview, journalist Steve Doocy noted that
approximately 260,000 children obtain U.S. citizenship at birth each year, even
though their parents are neither citizens nor legal permanent residents. That
figure was used as part of the debate on immigration policy and the need,
according to administration officials, to review the current interpretation of
the law and the Constitution on this matter.
Birthright citizenship is contemplated in the interpretation
of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which has
historically recognized citizenship for most people born on U.S. soil,
regardless of their parents' immigration status. However, it was created to
grant citizenship to Black people when slavery ended in the country, not to the
children of undocumented immigrants.
Although any attempt to modify this criterion faces
significant legal challenges and will foreseeably be subject to litigation in
federal courts, including the possibility of the case reaching the U.S. Supreme
Court.