US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday that seeks to deny citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.
The order seeks to change the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states that every person born on U.S. soil automatically obtains citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of his or her parents.
The measure would only apply to future births, according to a member of Trump's team at a press conference on Monday morning, before the new president took office.
Related: Trump's birthright citizenship proposal: Is change possible by executive order?
Without passports and basic rights
In practice, eliminating birthright citizenship would prevent the State Department from issuing passports to children born to undocumented parents and the Social Security Administration from recognizing them as citizens, making it difficult for them to access basic rights and work legally in the country.
Eliminating birthright citizenship has been a recurring demand of conservative groups.
Trump had already threatened to revoke this right by executive order during his first term (2017-2021), although he never did so.
Legal challenges
The White House has not detailed how the measure will be implemented, which is likely to face legal challenges in court and which many experts consider unconstitutional.
To redefine birthright citizenship, the most direct route would be to propose a constitutional amendment, which would require a two-thirds majority in the House and Senate, as well as ratification by three-quarters of the states, historian Scott Bomboy recently explained in an analysis published by the National Constitution Center, an institution dedicated to the study of the Constitution.
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Without exact figures
There are no exact figures on the number of children born in the US to undocumented parents.
According to the most recent data from the Pew Research Center, in 2022 there were approximately 1,3 million American adults whose parents lacked legal status in the country.
A 2018 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment means that children of undocumented immigrants are U.S. citizens.
However, the study cautioned that the Supreme Court "has not firmly settled the issue in the modern era," so potential legal challenges could alter the current interpretation.
Order has already been requested
Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning it was announced that it is an executive order already received two lawsuits.
The first lawsuit against Trump's executive order was immediately filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The second was filed Monday night in a Massachusetts federal court, ABC News reported.
The lawsuit, filed by an undocumented expectant mother expecting her baby in March, along with two nonprofit groups, alleges that Trump's order is a "blatantly unlawful" attempt to redefine a right "enshrined in the very fabric of our country."
The plaintiffs argued that birthright citizenship is not only guaranteed by the 14th Amendment but has also been systematically codified in federal law, and that its elimination would be “overwhelming and devastating,” rendering many “immediately stateless.”
The document asks the Massachusetts district court to declare the executive order unconstitutional and issue an injunction to block the implementation of Trump's order.
"The president does not have the power to decide who becomes a citizen at birth," the document adds, as cited by ABC.
*This story has been updated with information relevant to the lawsuits filed.
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