For many Americans born in the U.S., citizenship has never been something they had to think about. It isn’t earned through years of paperwork or a naturalization ceremony; it is simply something they always had. If you were born in the United States, you were an American. For generations, that seemed like an unquestionable fact.
That certainty was shaken earlier this year. President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship for certain children born in the U.S. The order immediately sparked legal challenges that made their way to the Supreme Court. However, the justices did not rule on whether birthright citizenship itself is constitutional. Instead, they decided lower courts should not automatically be able to block the policy nationwide while the legal battle continues. The broader constitutional question remains unresolved.
Rights and Opportunities
Regardless of the legal outcome, the debate has already changed something else. Birthright Citizenship became the center of debates in and outside of the courtroom. Many people are now asking a question they never considered prior. What does it actually mean to be born an American? For 20-year-old Howard University student Rashada Kaba, the question carries more weight today than ever. “Being born an American is something that I’m grateful for because I recognize that, by nature, I’ve been given many opportunities that lots of people my age in other countries may never have,” Kaba said.
Hearing about the legal battle over birthright citizenship forced her to think differently about something she had always assumed would be permanent. “It served as a wake-up call. So many people come to this country for better opportunities and instead are rejected because of their citizenship status,” said Kaba.
Birthright History
Birthright citizenship has been part of the Constitution for more than 150 years. Ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The amendment overturned the Supreme Court’s infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision. A case that denied citizenship to Black Americans. It also established the principle that citizenship is determined by birth rather than race or ancestry.
Although the current legal challenge centers on how the Fourteenth Amendment should be interpreted, the public conversation has extended beyond the constitution. Kaba believes many American born citizens rarely stop to consider what their citizenship means. “I think a good amount of people in this country have been privileged enough to never have to question their ability to live or work here,” she said. “Taking citizenship for granted can look like assuming the opportunities that come with it will always exist without recognizing that they can be gone forever in an instant.”
Born in the U.S.
For Temple University student Mariam Elias-Danjuma, the debate is deeply personal. Though she was born in the United States, watching loved ones navigate the immigration process molded her understanding of citizenship early in life. “Though I was born in the U.S., my mother and family members were not, so birthright citizenship is very near to me,” she said. “I still think: why was it even being questioned in the first place?”
Elias-Danjuma also hopes the renewed attention surrounding birthright citizenship encourages Americans to recognize that not everyone arrives at citizenship the same way. “I remember being in elementary school and helping my grandma study for her citizenship test,” she said. “Even as a kid, I understood that this process was more than a test or a paper. It was a chance.” That experience instilled an appreciation for citizenship that defies her legal status. “I would want those born in the U.S. who don’t often think about the process immigrants go through to gain citizenship to remember that citizenship means so much more than a lot can think,” she said.
Paths to Citizenship
This July, as the nation marked 250 years, Americans celebrated their founding ideals of liberty and opportunity. Yet this ongoing debate serves as a reminder that the meaning of those ideals is not static. Throughout the country’s history, amendments have continually expanded and redefined who is fully included in the American story. Today’s conversation is another chapter in that history. One that asks Americans to consider the many paths people take to belonging here.
The courts will ultimately decide the legal future of birthright citizenship. Regardless of how that question is resolved, this moment has already prompted a different, introspective one: What does it mean to be an American? For some, the answer begins with a birth certificate. For others, it begins with years of waiting, paperwork, and the hope of one day taking the oath of citizenship. Neither story diminishes the other. Together, they reveal that while Americans may arrive here in different ways, the nation’s future depends on recognizing humanity in each other’s journeys.
Perhaps that is the lasting impact of this debate. Not that it forced Americans to question who belongs, but that it encouraged more people to understand the weight of their birthright.
Featured image/photo by Vecteezy.
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