WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has said that birthright citizenship was primarily intended for the children of slaves and not for the whole world to “come in and pile” into the US.
On the very first day of his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order against birthright citizenship, which was struck down by a federal court in Seattle the next day.
Trump has said that he would appeal against it. On Thursday, he exuded confidence that the Supreme Court would rule in his favour.
“Birthright citizenship was, if you look back when this was passed and made, that was meant for the children of slaves. This was not meant for the whole world to come in and pile into the United States of America,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.
“Everybody coming in, and totally unqualified people with perhaps unqualified children. This wasn’t meant for that,” he said.
Asserting that it was meant for the children of slaves,” he said it was a “very good and noble” thing to do.
“I’m in favour of that 100 per cent. But it wasn’t meant for the entire world to occupy the United States,” Trump said.
“I just think that we’ll end up winning that in the Supreme Court. I think we’re going to win that case. I look forward to winning it.” “At that level, we’re the only country in the world that does this,” he said.
Early this week, a group of Republican Senators introduced a bill in the US Senate to restrict birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants and non-immigrants on temporary visas.
According to Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Katie Britt, who introduced the bill, the exploitation of birthright citizenship is a major pull factor for illegal immigration and a weakness for national security.
The US is one of only 33 countries in the world with no restrictions on birthright citizenship, they said. The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that in 2023, there were 2,25,000 to 2,50,000 births to illegal immigrants, amounting to close to seven per cent of births in the US.
The Birthright Citizenship Act of 2025 specifies who can receive citizenship by virtue of their birth in the United States, including children born to at least one parent who is either a citizen or national of the US, a lawful permanent resident of the US, or an alien performing active service in the armed forces.
This bill only applies to children born after the date of enactment.