In 1991, when Representative Elton Gallegly, a California Republican, sponsored a bill trying to restrict the Fourteenth Amendment, he referred to Schuck and Smith’s work. California, Gallegly said, had been enriched by the arrival of Latinos, Asians and others, but the rise in illegal immigration was a burden to law enforcement, medical facilities, schools and social welfare agencies. When considered together with the expanded welfare state, he said, the effects of birthright citizenship laws were “clearly harmful.” He also noted that it was harder to deport unauthorized parents if they had children who were citizens.
Gallegly’s bill died in committee, but support for the idea of restricting the application of the 14th Amendment grew. The epithet “anchor babies” gained traction in the early 2000s as a way to suggest that undocumented parents had children in the United States primarily to ward off deportation. For three years beginning in 2013, Texas stopped issuing birth certificates for some children of unauthorized migrants.
Unlike Schuck and Smith, most legal scholars believe that changing birthright citizenship requires ratifying a new constitutional amendment, a process that takes years and is unlikely to succeed. So many proponents of restriction would like to see the Supreme Court issue a decision that defines the amendment more narrowly. If Trump issues an executive order, it could force that court battle.
A New Constitutional Reset
In North and South America, where territorial birthright citizenship is standard, the policy has been a tool for strengthening statehood, said Maarten Vink, the co-director of the Global Citizenship Observatory, since it breaks immigrants’ links with their home nations and fosters deeper ties to their adopted country.
But the identities of these nations are now well-established, and as the global population turns more transient, more countries have tossed out jus soli. Since 1980, England, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand have all redefined citizenship so that it falls primarily along blood lines. In each case, new laws followed a rise in immigration from less developed regions of the world.