00:00One of President Trump's most ambitious policy endeavors, his effort to end birthright citizenship,
00:05is set to face its moment of truth before the Supreme Court on April 1st.
00:10SCOTUS will decide if Trump, who signed an executive order to end so-called birthright citizenship
00:15on his very first day back in office, has the power to block the children of illegal immigrants
00:20born on U.S. soil from automatically becoming citizens.
00:24The commander-in-chief had toyed with the idea of tackling birthright citizenship
00:28during his first administration, but it ultimately never came to fruition.
00:32At the time, even many conservative legal scholars were deeply skeptical
00:35that he could end birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants with a swipe of a pen.
00:40Birthright citizenship stems from the 14th Amendment, which stipulates that, quote,
00:45all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof
00:50are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
00:54Trump's team has latched onto the word jurisdiction and argued that illegal immigrants aren't
00:59exactly subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S.
01:02They've also pointed to the Supreme Court's ruling of the 1884 case, Elk v. Wilkins,
01:07which states that the children of Native Americans aren't guaranteed birthright citizenship.
01:12Congress later passed the Nationality Act of 1940 to guarantee the children of Native Americans
01:17citizenship.
01:18Backers of the executive order argue that the Nationality Act of 1940 helps their cause that
01:24there is more of a gray area in the 14th Amendment, while opponents contend that Trump
01:28is violating both the Constitution and statutory law.
01:32So far, every lower court that has looked at the executive order has deemed it illegal.
01:37The Supreme Court also dealt with a birthright citizenship question in the 1898 U.S. v.
01:42Congress' Wong Kim Arc case, which revolved around the status of a man born to Chinese immigrants.
01:48The high court ruled in that man's favor and determined that almost all native-born children
01:52automatically become citizens, with a few exceptions, such as foreign rulers, diplomats, and hostile
01:58foreign invaders.
01:59Very few countries outside the Americas offer birthright citizenship as universal as the U.S.
02:04does, to the point where illegal immigrants automatically become naturalized.
02:09Most of the ones that do aren't fully developed countries.
02:11Trump has signaled some nervousness that the Supreme Court could rule against him on the
02:16birthright citizenship case in light of the massive blow it dealt him on tariffs last month.
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