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On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump tried to make good on a prominent campaign promise: end the United States’ 150-plus-year practice of universal birthright citizenship.
Hours after taking the oath, Trump sat in the Oval Office to sign a bevy of executive orders. As he fielded questions from the press, he noted one reason behind his desire to end the nation’s long-standing citizenship policy.
"Birthright, that’s a big one," Trump said, taking the binder. "It’s ridiculous. We are the only country in the world that does this with the birthright, as you know, and it’s just absolutely ridiculous."
Birthright citizenship refers to the right of people born in the U.S. to become citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Trump’s order, which seeks to end the practice for children whose parents are in the country illegally or temporarily, is expected to prompt a long court fight — it will not undo birthright citizenship on its own.
But is Trump right that the U.S. is the "only" country in the world to offer automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil?
No. PolitiFact contacted Trump’s team for comment but did not hear back by publication.
There are about three dozen countries that have unrestricted birthright citizenship, also known as "jus soli," or "right of the soil." The U.S. is joined by neighbors Canada and Mexico, along with nearly every country in Central and South America.
But the countries’ makeup and locations are notable.
The U.S. and Canada are considered the only two "developed" countries, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. And a closer look at the list shows countries that offer birthright citizenship are almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. No country in Europe or East Asia, for example, has a similar policy.
Some experts say colonialism offers one explanation. As European countries colonized the Americas, they were eager to populate their settlements and many created lenient naturalization laws and policies to do so.
The U.S. has maintained its birthright laws despite experiencing high levels of immigration.
Some European nations, meanwhile, have chosen to modify their citizenship requirements over the years. Ireland ditched its birthright citizenship law in 2005, and France jettisoned its own in 1993.
But other nations maintain a version of birthright citizenship. In Germany and the United Kingdom, for example, citizenship is automatically granted to people born within the nations’ borders, provided at least one parent is a citizen or permanent resident.
Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order
Trump’s Jan. 20 order says that the privilege of U.S. citizenship "does not automatically extend" to children born in the U.S. when the mother was "unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth" or when the "mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary." It lists temporary statuses such as visiting the country on the visa waiver program or visiting on a student, work or tourist visa.
The order will apply to people born on or after Feb. 19 to children born under those circumstances and directs agencies against issuing documents recognizing citizenship and bars them from accepting any governmental documents purporting to recognize citizenship for births in those cases.
But the 14th Amendment says that "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." A 1952 statute echoes the amendment’s language, reading in part: "The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: (a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof."
Universal birthright citizenship’s opponents see wiggle room in the qualifier "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," which appears in both places.
Legal scholars have traditionally interpreted the phrase to exclude only the U.S.-born children of foreign diplomats or of enemy forces engaged in hostilities on U.S. soil. But people skeptical of birthright citizenship’s legal basis have argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has never specifically ruled on whether the children of people in the country illegally would qualify for birthright citizenship.
Legal experts have told us that attempts to end birthright citizenship would prompt a court battle over the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s wording and could require a constitutional amendment.
Within a day of Trump’s issuing the order, that process is already playing out. Eighteen U.S. states and the American Civil Liberties Union have sued the Trump administration to block the order.
Our ruling
Trump said that the U.S. is the only country in the world to have unrestricted birthright citizenship.
This is incorrect. Around three dozen other countries offer automatic citizenship to children born within their borders, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
We rate this False.
Our Sources
- C-SPAN, President Trump Holds Oval Office Signing Event, Jan. 20, 2025
- PolitiFact, Trump issues executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, likely prompting court battle, Jan. 20, 2025
- PolitiFact, S.E. Cupp: Only about 30 other countries offer birthright citizenship, making U.S. 'anomaly', Aug. 23, 2015
- PolitiFact, Glenn Beck, on anchor babies, claims U.S. is only country with automatic citizenship upon birth, June 19, 2009
- The White House, PROTECTING THE MEANING AND VALUE OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP, Jan. 20, 2025
- The CIA World Factbook, Field Listing Citizenship, Accessed Jan. 21, 2025
- World Population Review, Countries with Birthright Citizenship 2024, Accessed Jan. 21, 2025
- International Monetary Fund, Country Composition of WEO Groups, Accessed Jan. 21, 2025
- Migration Policy Institute, International Migration Statistics, Accessed Jan. 21, 2025
- Citizens Information, Entitlement to Irish citizenship, Updated Dec. 9, 2024
- European University Institute, EUDO Citizenship Observatory Country Report: France, Updated April 2010
- Center for Immigration Studies, Birthright Citizenship: An Overview, Nov. 5, 2018
- The Brennan Center, Presidents Can’t End Birthright Citizenship, Jan. 20, 2025
- The Atlantic, America Isn’t the ‘Only Country’ With Birthright Citizenship, Oct. 31, 2018
- The Hill, These are the countries with and without birthright citizenship, Dec. 9, 2024
- The New York Times, 18 States Sue to Stop Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order, Jan. 21, 2025
- American Civil Liberties Union, Immigrants’ Rights Advocates Sue Trump Administration Over Birthright Citizenship Executive Order, Jan. 20, 2025
- Email interview, David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, Jan. 21, 2025
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