Donald Trump’s dispute over the place of birth principle has long been more than a debate about migration. Despite his defeat, the 250th anniversary is about the fundamental question of who can be an American.
This decision was about nothing less than the soul of the United States. Every child learns at school: Anyone who is born on this soil in this country is an American. According to the so-called “Birthright Citizenship”, i.e. the place of birth principle, a person automatically receives US citizenship simply because they live in the United States USA is born. It is a law that has been in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution for more than 150 years.
The Supreme Court has Donald Trump prevented from overriding the place of birth principle for the time being. Even if the judges have not yet finally decided the actual constitutional question. Nevertheless, they handed him a bitter defeat. The majority of conservative judges on the Supreme Court are stopping the US President on one of his core concerns, namely to further restrict the rights of migrants.
They argued with the history of the United States. The USA is a country based on this legal tradition. It makes up a significant part of American identity. Without “Birthright Citizenship,” the children of former slaves would not have become Americans. Conservative lawyers have been arguing for years that the 14th Amendment was never originally intended for children of migrants who entered the country illegally. However, the majority of American constitutional lawyers still do not follow this reading.
Trump’s argument: baby tourism
Nevertheless, on the first day of his second presidency, Donald Trump signed a decree declaring this rule invalid. He and his team had been preparing this measure for many years. Their argument: This American birthplace principle has led to massive abuse. Millions of migrants came to the USA illegally to give birth there.
With the help of such so-called “anchor children”, these people would also gain their own right to stay, according to the US government’s perspective, which also speaks of birth tourism. In fact, a child born in the USA by no means automatically grants its parents the right to remain.
In reality, millions of people would have been affected by the measure if the judges had ruled in favor of Trump. They might suddenly have simply become stateless. Around 3.5 million babies are born in the United States every year. Only around nine percent come from parents who came to the USA as migrants without valid residence documents. There are around 300,000 babies every year, including those born to tourists or valid visa holders.
But there is much more to the dispute than just migration policy. It’s about two completely different ideas about what America actually is: a constitutional nation or an ethnically defined nation. The Trump administration and many Republicans are obviously concerned with the latter.
