Legal Battle Erupts Over Trump’s Executive Order Targeting Birthright Citizenship, Nigerians Among Potentially Affected Individuals
President Donald Trump has announced plans to terminate birthright citizenship, a policy that automatically grants citizenship to individuals born on U.S. soil. Following his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” in the Oval Office, which specifically targets infants born after February 19.
Legal experts and advocates are voicing concerns that this order may face significant legal opposition, as it challenges an established interpretation of the 14th Amendment that has stood for over a century and a half. This amendment, ratified in 1868, explicitly states that “all persons born” in the United States are citizens, a provision historically aimed at ensuring citizenship for freed slaves post-Civil War.
The 14th Amendment was reaffirmed in the landmark 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark. In this case, the Court upheld that Wong Kim Ark, born in the U.S. to Chinese immigrants, was a citizen despite his parents’ immigration status. This legal precedent underscores a potential conflict with Trump’s new directive.
The executive order particularly targets two demographics of infants:
- Babies born to mothers unauthorized to stay in the U.S. whose fathers are neither citizens nor permanent residents.
- Babies born to mothers who are in the country temporarily on visas (such as student, work, or tourist visas), with fathers also lacking citizenship or permanent resident status.
Notably, this policy also defines parents solely as “male and female biological progenitors,” which excludes nonbinary and queer couples from its protections.
The implications of this order are especially concerning for Nigerian families. If implemented, many newborns, including those of Nigerian immigrants, would be denied U.S. birthright citizenship. As a result, these infants might face challenges in obtaining essential documents like birth certificates, Social Security numbers, and passports, leading to difficulties in accessing healthcare and other vital services. Families—particularly those navigating the complexities of undocumented or temporary immigration status—could also confront the looming threat of deportation for mothers shortly after childbirth.
Legal scholars largely agree that Trump’s order contradicts the spirit and text of the 14th Amendment. For over 150 years, it has guaranteed citizenship for anyone born in the U.S., regardless of their parents’ immigration circumstances. While Trump asserts that there is significant public support for this change and believes there are strong legal grounds for the policy, experts predict that the courts will likely intervene to block the order.
Some statistics highlight the potential scope of the impact: A Pew Research report from 2016 revealed that around 250,000 babies were born to undocumented parents in the U.S. that year. By 2022, it was estimated that approximately 1.2 million U.S. citizens were children of undocumented immigrants—many of whom could be of Nigerian descent. The Migration Policy Institute warns that the abolition of birthright citizenship could result in approximately 4.7 million undocumented individuals by the year 2050.
In a recent interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Trump stated that children of undocumented immigrants should be deported alongside their families, saying, “I don’t want to be breaking up families… So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
In response to this executive order, 18 states have united to legally challenge Trump’s directive, emphasizing the need to uphold the 14th Amendment’s fundamental principle of citizenship for all individuals born in the U.S., regardless of their parents’ immigration status. This coordinated effort showcases the resilience of American democratic institutions and sends a strong message that attempts to alter constitutional rights through executive actions will face rigorous opposition.
For the Nigerian community in the U.S., the ramifications of this order could be profound, jeopardizing the citizenship rights of newborns and potentially disrupting families across the country.
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