After the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, the president called on Congress to end it through legislation, saying a “long and unwieldy” constitutional amendment was not necessary. But constitutional and immigration law experts disagree.
Q: How real is birth tourism?
A: The government doesn’t provide estimates of the extent of so-called birth tourism — pregnant women coming to the U.S. on tourism visas in order to obtain birthright U.S. citizenship for their newborn child. One outside group has estimated it may be more than 20,000 births per year. Some argue it’s not common enough to justify upending longstanding birthright citizenship policies.
Former President Donald Trump misleadingly said that “under Biden’s current policies” children born to parents in the country illegally automatically become citizens. That’s not a Biden policy, but rather it has been the standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment going back more than 100 years, including under Trump.