Updated 11:32 IST, January 22nd 2025
Trump Birthright, Immigration Crackdown Blow: How It Will Impact Indian Students
The executive order states that babies born in the US will not be recognised as citizens once the order takes effect if neither parent is a US citizen.

U.S. President Donald Trump after being sworn in on Monday (January 20, 2025), signed an Executive Order cancelling the provision of “citizenship by birth”. This decision targets the long-standing constitutional principle of birthright citizenship, which has been upheld for over 150 years.
The executive order requires federal agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents, like Social Security cards and passports, to children born in the US to parents who entered the country illegally. The order states that babies born in the US will not be recognised as citizens by the government once the order takes effect, if neither parent is a US citizen.
The policy is scheduled to take effect 30 days after the order is issued, which is anticipated to trigger significant legal challenges.
What is Birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship is a legal principle where individuals automatically receive citizenship upon birth. There are two types of birthright citizenship: ancestry-based, which is based on the nationality of parents, and birthplace-based, formally known as jus soli, Latin for "right of the soil," which grants citizenship based on where a person is born.
In the United States, birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Specifically, it states 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." This principle was confirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which clarified that children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are citizens, regardless of their parent's immigration status.
How It Will Impact Indian Students and Workers
If uncontested, this could directly impact thousands of Indian professionals working in the U.S. on H-1B and other temporary visas, who had hoped to raise their families there. It will also affect hundreds of thousands of children born to Indian immigrants in the US each year, potentially putting families at risk.
Children born to Indian students on non-immigrant visas may encounter difficulties in obtaining US citizenship, especially at a time when Indian students constitute one of the largest groups of international students in the US.
The executive order also seeks to halt the practice of birth tourism in the country. Birth tourism involves a situation where a woman travels to the United States to give birth, enabling the child to automatically obtain US citizenship.
According to the latest Census, there are more than 5.4 million Indians in the United States, accounting for approximately 1.47% of the US population. Two-thirds are immigrants, while 34% were born in the US.
Published 08:40 IST, January 22nd 2025