Everyone born in a state is automatically a U.S. citizen under the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but former President Trump has claimed since at least 2015 that American citizenship based on birth in a state should not be a given. “We have to start a process where we take back our country,” he said, adding that he would “test it out” in the courts.
President Trump revisited – and reaffirmed – his intention to end birthright citizenship during his campaign for the presidency in 2024. On his first day in office in 2025, he signed an executive order limiting birthright citizenship. This raises a very Puerto Rico specific concern: if even Constitutionally protected U.S. citizenship can be threatened, where does that leave the U.S. citizenship of Puerto Ricans, whose citizenship is granted outside of the Constitution? Is Puerto Rican U.S. citizenship even more vulnerable? Can it be taken away?
Trump and birthright citizenship
Trump’s objection to birthright citizenship is centered on the concern that when non-citizens have a child in the United States, that child automatically becomes a U.S. citizen. Trump believes that this fact encourages immigrants to come to the United States, sometimes illegally. He has said that “hundreds of thousands of people from all over the planet squat in hotels for their last few weeks of pregnancy to illegitimately and illegally obtain U.S. citizenship for the child.”
On the anniversary of a Supreme Court decision confirming birthright citizenship, Trump announced that he would end birthright citizenship “on day one” of his second presidency if he were to be elected in November. Most constitutional scholars agree that this would require a constitutional amendment. In order to amend the Constitution, two thirds of both the House and the Senate would have to agree, and then two thirds of the states would have to ratify the amendment. Such a maneuver certainly couldn’t take place on the first day of his presidency, but the president appears to be committed to reforming laws on U.S. citizenship eventually.
Not just Trump
Trump is not the only politician who has been toying with the idea of ending birthright citizenship. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) proposed a bill last month which would redefine the language of the 14th amendment to apply only to children born in a state to parents who were in the state legally.
There is general agreement that the 14th amendment literally means just what it appears to mean: that everyone born in a state is automatically a citizen of the United States.
Sen. Graham, however, is the lead Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, a post that gives him a substantial platform to advance his agenda, particularly since the Republican Party is now in the majority in Congress.
Connecting the dots
The willingness of some politicians to redefine or to simply change the law regarding citizenship sends a message to Puerto Rico. U.S. citizenship for people born in Puerto Rico is statutory. It hinges on the 1917 law passed in Congress, not on the protections of the U.S. Constitution. Today, U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans is granted through a statute but not explicitly protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The future is even more precarious. Claims that Puerto Ricans could not lose their U.S. citizenship if Puerto Rico became independent are generally based on personal incredulity — surely Congress wouldn’t do that! In fact, it looks as though some U.S. politicians are flexible on U.S. citizenship, and very much in favor of limiting access to it, even today.
Updated 1/21/2025
