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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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A new poll found that 44 percent of Republicans support birthright citizenship, as the Supreme Court weighs its decision in a case about an executive order signed by President Donald Trump establishing that children of temporary visitors and illegal immigrants are not U.S. citizens by birth.
Last month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, which centers around whether Trump's executive order complies with the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Nationality Act of 1940, which has been understood as making everyone born in the United States a citizen, with exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and invading armies. The order was met with multiple lawsuits, and courts have prevented it from taking effect.
More than a quarter-million babies born in the U.S. each year would be affected by the order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State University’s Population Research Institute.
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The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released on Wednesday found that about two-thirds of U.S. adults support automatic citizenship for all children born in the country, but some oppose birthright citizenship in certain circumstances.
Just under half of the respondents said children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally should be granted automatic citizenship, while 75 percent said children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country legally on work visas should be granted automatic citizenship.
The poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
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What To Know About the Supreme Court's Birthright Citizenship Case
The case before the Supreme Court began with a legal challenge to Trump’s executive order filed for two babies and their parents and a pregnant woman who has since given birth, on behalf of a nationwide class. A district court certified the class and entered a preliminary injunction. The government appealed the decision and asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
Attorneys for the Trump administration argued that the Citizenship Clause was adopted to grant citizenship to newly freed slaves and their children, but does not extend to the children of temporary visitors or illegal immigrants.
Attorneys for the respondents said in a brief in opposition that "numerous federal statutes are built on the assumption that all persons born in the United States are citizens who do not need to obtain immigration status or naturalize."
Trump made history by attending oral arguments in the case, becoming the first sitting president to do so at the Supreme Court.
Why Is Trump Going After Birthright Citizenship?
Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship is part of his administration's immigration enforcement initiatives. Trump has explained his support of the order on social media.
"Birthright Citizenship is not about rich people from China, and the rest of the World, who want their children, and hundreds of thousands more, FOR PAY, to ridiculously become citizens of the United States of America. It is about the BABIES OF SLAVES! We are the only Country in the World that dignifies this subject with even discussion," Trump said on social media in March.
What Does the Constitution Say About Birthright Citizenship?
The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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