US birthright: Trump: New attempt to restrict US birthright

After his defeat before the US Supreme Court, President Donald Trump is trying again to restrict the US birthright of certain groups. Newborns whose mothers travel to the US exclusively for the birth will no longer automatically be granted US citizenship in the future. Trump signed a corresponding decree to counter "birth tourism".

There could be lawsuits against Trump's plans again. Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that there were people who entered the country under the pretext of visiting Disneyland. But the real reason was to give birth in the United States so that the child would automatically become a US citizen. It remained unclear how exactly the US government wanted to find out in individual cases for what purpose someone entered the US.

Trump signed another decree. According to this, the US government can, according to its own statements, revoke the US citizenship of people if it was obtained under false pretenses. Diplomats also affected In a second decree, the US government states that citizenship does not have to be granted if both parents are not US citizens and one of the following cases applies to them - a selection: Member of a terrorist organization Ambassador, employee of an embassy and consulate abroad, or persons who work for a foreign government Birth in a US territory in which citizenship is not granted by federal law.

Outer areas include, for example, Puerto Rico, Guam and the US Virgin Islands. Trump had already lost before the Supreme Court at the end of June, Trump had suffered a defeat before the US Supreme Court in a landmark ruling. Children born in the United States continue to automatically acquire US citizenship, as the Supreme Court decided.

This also applies to children of parents who are illegally or only temporarily in the US. Trump described the decision on Thursday as "very unfortunate". The basis for US birthright is the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."

This so-called jus soli (right of the soil) has guaranteed almost every child born on US territory automatic citizenship since 1868. The judges confirmed this practice with their judgment. They justified their decision with the history of the 14th Constitutional Amendment and a landmark Supreme Court decision from 1898. The children concerned were "citizens by birth under the Constitution".

The court also emphasized that terms such as "lawfully" or "temporarily", which Trump relied on in his order to change the birthright, did not appear in the constitutional text at all - "for a simple reason: They didn't matter."