The 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump has signed a new executive order to block automatic birthright citizenship for children of people where neither parent is a citizen or lawful permanent resident in the country.
- However, a federal judge temporarily blocked US President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing the executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States.
The Issue Involved
- Executive Order by Donald Trump:
- The order aims to restrict automatic birthright citizenship for children of non-citizen parents or temporary visa holders.
- It challenges the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which 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.”
- Impact on Immigrant Families:
- Families on temporary visas, such as H-1B and L-1, or in the Green Card backlog, will face challenges.
- Children born in the US to these parents would no longer have automatic citizenship, affecting pathways for residency or family reunification.
- Birthright Citizenship in India:
- Article 5 of the Constitution of India states that every person who was born in the territory before the commencement of the Constitution shall be a citizen of India.
- Parliament enacted the Citizenship Act, 1955, which provided birthright citizenship under Section 3 to every person born in India on or after January 26, 1950. Amendments in 1986 and 2003 introduced stricter criteria:
- Citizenship is granted only if at least one parent is an Indian citizen and the other is not an illegal immigrant (Amendments in 1986).
- A child would not become a citizen at birth if one of her parents was an illegal immigrant when she was born (Amendment in 2003).
- These changes were driven by concerns over large-scale immigration from neighboring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and some African Countries.
- For Indian Immigrants in the US:
- Indian parents on H-1B and L-1 visas, or those awaiting Green Cards, face uncertainty regarding their children’s citizenship status.
- The end of automatic citizenship could complicate family planning, residency, and long-term aspirations to settle in the US.
- Broader Constitutional Debate:
- In the US, altering birthright citizenship through an executive order raises questions about the separation of powers and constitutional processes.
- It also risks creating a stateless generation if children are denied citizenship by both the US and their parents’ countries of origin.
(Source: The Mint and The Indian Express)
