Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship goes to US Supreme Court

Migrant advocates protest outside court denouncing White House's effort to bar children born to non-citizens from automatically gaining US citizenship

People demonstrate outside the US Supreme Court in Washington on Thursday. AFP

US President Donald Trump's attempt to end “birthright citizenship”, through which any child born in the US gains American nationality automatically, is to be debated at the Supreme Court on Thursday.

Mr Trump is seeking to challenge the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which grants citizenship to most children born on US soil, even if the parents are undocumented immigrants or foreign visitors.

On his first day in office in January, he signed an executive order that would effectively overturn that right, arguing that undocumented immigrants, primarily those coming from Central and South America, were taking advantage of the rule.

“We are, for the sake of being politically correct, a stupid country but, in actuality, this is the exact opposite of being politically correct, and it is yet another point that leads to the dysfunction of America,” Mr Trump, who is on a week-long trip to the Gulf, wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Mr Trump and his Republican allies have long argued that the provision enables migrants to come to the US merely to have children and stay in the country.

The President has made hardline immigration policies a central pillar of his goals and his bid to end birthright is one of several that have made it more difficult for people to come to the US.

The birthright clause, ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the American Civil War, was included to ensure that formerly enslaved people and their children would be citizens – overturning a previous provision that stipulated that black people could not be citizens.

The court cemented the principle 30 years later in a case that clarified that any child born within the US or its possessions – even to non-citizens – are US citizens.

The US is one of 37 countries that explicitly grants citizenship to anyone born there.

A group of migrant advocates held a protest outside the Supreme Court denouncing the Trump administration's policy.

Research by the Migration Policy found that repealing birthright would lead to an average of 255,000 children born in the country each year without American citizenship due to their parents' status.

Democratic-led states, immigrant advocates and human rights groups have sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block the executive order. Lower courts had earlier temporarily halted the order, calling it unconstitutional.