Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order could affect over 1 million Indians waiting for green cards.

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Indian Americans, along with various immigrant groups, are at the center of a significant transformation in U.S. immigration policy, following President Donald Trump’s Executive Order issued on January 20, titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.” This directive aims to eliminate birthright citizenship, a provision that has historically ensured automatic U.S. citizenship for children born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ citizenship status. The implications of this order will be particularly profound for Indian families, especially those holding temporary visas such as H-1B work visas or H-4 dependent visas, who have depended on birthright citizenship as a protective measure for their offspring. Should this order be implemented, children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents residing temporarily in the country—often under visa categories predominantly used by Indians—would no longer be guaranteed U.S. citizenship.

With over a million Indians facing a prolonged green card backlog, the birthright citizenship of their children has provided a crucial sense of security. The enactment of this order would threaten the automatic citizenship of children born in the U.S. to parents awaiting legal status, potentially placing these families in a precarious legal situation. In his directive, President Trump contests the traditional interpretation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which has historically guaranteed birthright citizenship. The Executive Order posits that the amendment was not intended to apply universally and contends that individuals who are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., such as those on temporary visas, should be excluded from its protections. Additionally, the executive order aims to address the issue of birth tourism, a practice in which foreign nationals travel to the U.S. to give birth in order to secure citizenship for their children. Indian families, alongside Mexican families, are among those frequently associated with this phenomenon.