President Donald Trump has vowed to pursue legislation to end birthright citizenship after the US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States, dealing a setback to one of his key immigration policies.

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The president said Congress should begin work immediately on changing the law, arguing that legislation could achieve his goal without the need for a constitutional amendment. However, legal experts say any such law would almost certainly face constitutional challenges because birthright citizenship is rooted in the US Constitution.

Trump rejects court ruling

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to strike down an executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office that sought to end automatic citizenship for many children born in the US.

Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to every person born in the United States. He wrote that the amendment extended the promise of citizenship "to every free-born person in this land" and that the court would continue to uphold that principle.

Responding on his social media platform, Trump described the ruling as "too bad for our Country" but insisted that Congress could still act.

He argued that lawmakers could end birthright citizenship through legislation backed by the president, saying there was no need for what he called a "long and unwieldy" constitutional amendment. Trump urged Congress to begin work on the issue immediately.

Legal hurdles remain

Birthright citizenship is protected by both the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and federal citizenship law enacted in 1940.

Although Trump believes Congress could change the law, any legislation attempting to restrict birthright citizenship would likely face immediate legal challenges. Courts would have to decide whether such a law is compatible with the Constitution, raising the possibility that the issue could eventually return to the Supreme Court.

ABC News asked the White House for details on how the administration believes legislation could overcome the court's ruling and whether it expects further legal challenges. The White House referred questions to Trump's social media statement.

The president's comments marked a shift in emphasis following remarks he made a day earlier, when he said he would accept the Supreme Court's decision and acknowledged that the matter was ultimately for the justices to decide.

Later on Tuesday, Trump repeated his call for Congress to act while also highlighting other recent Supreme Court decisions that had gone in his favour.

Congress weighs next steps

Before Trump's latest comments, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans were disappointed by the court's decision and expected Congress to consider possible responses.

Johnson said lawmakers would discuss whether a constitutional amendment was needed to address birthright citizenship, arguing that the current policy had been "grossly abused."

He acknowledged, however, that changing the Constitution would be difficult and could take many years. Under the US Constitution, an amendment requires approval by a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress before being ratified by three-quarters of the states.

Johnson said he believed a constitutional amendment was likely to be the only long-term solution following the Supreme Court's ruling.

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This is one of his unconstitutional demands that he ain't gonna get.

I don't see a problem though with denying entry to foreign ladies in obvious late pregnancy though and also companies that are actively facilitating such birth citizenship trips.

Coincidentally I recently read about Chile which also has birthright citizenship, and some people are intentionally going there to have a baby and then the parents later can apply for residency based on a Chilean relative.

Chilean passport ranked 15th in the world. USA 12th.

So the U.S. isn't the only country that has issues around this.

Denying entry to foreign ladies in obvious late pregnancy this has always been the case, but it is harder to do in practice There are places where for example no visa is required to enter America

I think the travel birthright is a bit red herring. The real numbers are persons who are in the US illegally and maybe for years and then they have a baby.

3 hours ago, Jingthing said:

This is one of his unconstitutional demands that he ain't gonna get.

I don't see a problem though with denying entry to foreign ladies in obvious late pregnancy though and also companies that are actively facilitating such birth citizenship trips.

Coincidentally I recently read about Chile which also has birthright citizenship, and some people are intentionally going there to have a baby and then the parents later can apply for residency based on a Chilean relative.

Chilean passport ranked 15th in the world. USA 12th.

So the U.S. isn't the only country that has issues around this.

México, too. #19

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

I think the travel birthright is a bit red herring. The real numbers are persons who are in the US illegally and maybe for years and then they have a baby.

Obviously.

But that people object to people traveling just to pop a baby to get a passport is understandable and yes, it does happen.

15 hours ago, webfact said:

President Donald Trump has vowed to pursue legislation to end birthright citizenship after the US Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States, dealing a setback to one of his key immigration policies.

He should done that in the first place instead of that quickie executive order.

17 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Chilean passport ranked 15th in the world. USA 12th.

That's a surprise. I suppose Singapore passports are highly rated but I was surprised that the UAE was higher than the USA passports.

All of it is unconstitutional. It requires an amendment to change that. Good luck passing that one.

This is too funny 😂.

Nobody wants to be an American anymore.

1 hour ago, cjinchiangrai said:

All of it is unconstitutional. It requires an amendment to change that. Good luck passing that one.

If they are specifically going against birth tourism -- that is preventing persons from entering the US with that purpose -- that would not necessarily be unconstitutional.

10 minutes ago, JerryM said:

If they are specifically going against birth tourism -- that is preventing persons from entering the US with that purpose -- that would not necessarily be unconstitutional.

They are doing that already and have been for years. They are trying to revoke citizenship on brown people.

3 minutes ago, cjinchiangrai said:

They are doing that already and have been for years. They are trying to revoke citizenship on brown people.

Guardian headline today:

Trump attorney general plots crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ after supreme court ruling

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly

4 hours ago, JerryM said:

He should done that in the first place instead of that quickie executive order.

Trump does not have the numbers to do it, and he knows it would never be passed.

3 minutes ago, MikeandDow said:

Trump does not have the numbers to do it, and he knows it would never be passed.

There are things that maybe he can get through without the ENTIRE 14th amendment provision since that is where he is now. But he put forward this exec order day 1 term 2 which means it was drafted by the Project 2025 folks.

9 minutes ago, JerryM said:

Guardian headline today:

Trump attorney general plots crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ after supreme court ruling

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly

It is not a new policy, they are just claiming credit for what others have done.They have nothing else to claim credit for. Now, where are those Epstein files?

Trump first claimed in 2018 first term he could eliminate birthrate via executive order. The Supreme court has turned him down on exec order and he doesn't have the numbers in Senate.

I don't think now he is going to just do nothing.

Deputy COS Stephen Miller is the main architect of the birthright effort and I think people are maybe underestimating how vicious he can be.

1 hour ago, JerryM said:

If they are specifically going against birth tourism -- that is preventing persons from entering the US with that purpose -- that would not necessarily be unconstitutional.

Already being done. But Trump needs to get the credit.

• While simply being pregnant in the U.S. is not illegal, applying for a B-1/B-2 tourist or medical visa with the sole purpose of gaining U.S. citizenship for a child is an impermissible basis for issuing a visa. Consular officers and border agents can legally deny entry or revoke visas if they determine an applicant is misrepresenting their travel intentions.

• Federal authorities (at least prior to the Trump regime) routinely investigate and prosecute the operators of "maternity hotels" and birth tourism schemes for charges ranging from visa fraud and wire fraud to tax evasion and identity theft.

14 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Already being done. But Trump needs to get the credit.

• While simply being pregnant in the U.S. is not illegal, applying for a B-1/B-2 tourist or medical visa with the sole purpose of gaining U.S. citizenship for a child is an impermissible basis for issuing a visa. Consular officers and border agents can legally deny entry or revoke visas if they determine an applicant is misrepresenting their travel intentions.

• Federal authorities (at least prior to the Trump regime) routinely investigate and prosecute the operators of "maternity hotels" and birth tourism schemes for charges ranging from visa fraud and wire fraud to tax evasion and identity theft.

in some places you do not need a visa to enter the USA

4 hours ago, JoeRan said:

This is too funny 😂.

Nobody wants to be an American anymore.

"Nobody" ... thus no problem.

1 hour ago, MikeandDow said:

in some places you do not need a visa to enter the USA

Under visa waiver program, citizens of certain designated countries can travel to the U.S. for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa -- pretty catchy timing if you are already pregnant and can't show it.

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

Already being done. But Trump needs to get the credit.

• While simply being pregnant in the U.S. is not illegal, applying for a B-1/B-2 tourist or medical visa with the sole purpose of gaining U.S. citizenship for a child is an impermissible basis for issuing a visa. Consular officers and border agents can legally deny entry or revoke visas if they determine an applicant is misrepresenting their travel intentions.

• Federal authorities (at least prior to the Trump regime) routinely investigate and prosecute the operators of "maternity hotels" and birth tourism schemes for charges ranging from visa fraud and wire fraud to tax evasion and identity theft.

The above likely from the Travel.gov website. That don't mean Team Trump led by Deputy COS Miller can't come up with something else.

Posts with derogatory nicknames, intentional misspellings, or personal remarks will be removed. Spell names correctly for all sides of the debate.

3 hours ago, JerryM said:

Guardian headline today:

Trump attorney general plots crackdown on ‘birth tourism’ after supreme court ruling

Todd Blanche to target tourists and migrants despite such births accounting for less than 1% of US babies born yearly

Isn't less than 1% is quite a lot? About 3.6m babies per year. 36k per annum feels like a lot.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm

I wonder how much Todd will spend doing this though, and does it balance the books. Or will someone make a lot of money from doing this.

24 minutes ago, Watawattana said:

Isn't less than 1% is quite a lot? About 3.6m babies per year. 36k per annum feels like a lot.

Trump has said Birthright citizenship is STUPID and that other countries are laughing at us over the birth in US packages.

What could be more important?

Don't worry after the midterms he will be basically sitting court rooms and congressional hearings trying to defend his self for the rest of his presidency. He is basically neutered at this point. What an idiot. He had it all and the power went to his head.

As much as the USA gets hate on here. One of the best things about it is. We can vote clowns like this out and shift gears.

2 hours ago, JerryM said:

Trump has said Birthright citizenship is STUPID and that other countries are laughing at us over the birth in US packages.

What could be more important?

He also said that no other country has birthright citizenship, which is another one of his lies.

Trump says no other country has birthright citizenship. That’s not even close to being true

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-birthright-citizenship-20181030-story.html

There are 35 with unrestricted birthright citizenship and 40 others that allow it with certain conditions, according to the World Population Review.

https://citizensinternational.com/75-countries-with-birthright-citizenship/

19 minutes ago, Gknrd said:

Don't worry after the midterms he will be basically sitting court rooms and congressional hearings trying to defend his self for the rest of his presidency. He is basically neutered at this point. What an idiot. He had it all and the power went to his head.

As much as the USA gets hate on here. One of the best things about it is. We can vote clowns like this out and shift gears.

Other posters who dislike trump should take note of this comment. Great comment.

5-4 decision to allow it while 160 other countries(82%) have serious doubts about it .

How crazy is that ,Example people cross the border illegally or have no immigration status and yet their babies become American citizens.

21 minutes ago, GroveHillWanderer said:

He also said that no other country has birthright citizenship, which is another one of his lies.

Trump says no other country has birthright citizenship. That’s not even close to being true

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-birthright-citizenship-20181030-story.html

There are 35 with unrestricted birthright citizenship and 40 others that allow it with certain conditions, according to the World Population Review.

https://citizensinternational.com/75-countries-with-birthright-citizenship/

congress should act.

in the interim, pregnant tourists should be screened for fraud