United States citizenship can be obtained through birthright in two ways: by being born on U.S. soil (jus soli) or by having at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen at the time of birth (jus sanguinis). Birthright citizenship differs from citizenship obtained through other methods, such as naturalization.
The principle of birthright citizenship is enshrined in the first section of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified on July 9, 1868. It states:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."
The amendment overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), which had ruled that African Americans, whether born in the U.S. or not, and whether enslaved or free, could not be U.S. citizens. Under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Immigration and Nationality Act, any person born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction automatically acquires U.S. citizenship, a principle known as jus soli ("right of the soil"). This extends to U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" excluded Native Americans living under tribal sovereignty and children born to foreign diplomats. Birthright citizenship was later granted to Native Americans through the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Additionally, federal law provides birthright citizenship to children born abroad to U.S. citizens, with some exceptions, a concept known as jus sanguinis ("right of blood").
In 2016, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that about 6% of all births in the U.S. (roughly 250,000 out of 4 million annual births) were to unauthorized immigrants. Additionally, there were around 5 million children under 18 living in the U.S. with at least one unauthorized parent. In 2018, the Migration Policy Institute revised the estimate to 4.1 million children.
Over the past few decades, political opposition to jus soli birthright citizenship has grown in the U.S., especially following the election of Donald Trump, who explicitly opposed jus soli citizenship during his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2024. While most legal experts agree that the Fourteenth Amendment supports jus soli citizenship, some dissenters argue that it does not apply to the children of unauthorized immigrants born on U.S. soil.
On January 24, 2020, during the first Trump administration, a policy was adopted to make it more difficult for pregnant foreign women to enter the U.S. if it was suspected that their intent was to give birth on U.S. soil, thereby securing U.S. citizenship for their children. This practice, often referred to by immigration restriction supporters as "birth tourism," was targeted by the new policy.
When Trump assumed office for a second term in 2025, he issued an executive order aimed at redefining birthright citizenship, though its legality remains disputed. In response, civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups filed lawsuits, arguing that the executive order is unconstitutional.
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