Donald Trump falls short on promise to end birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump's promise to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents here illegally became a constitutional debate among scholars and pundits, but has not materialized into action.

Throughout his presidency, Trump floated the idea of delivering on this promise through an executive order. But he has not signed one toward that end.

Trump has suggested that Congress should be the one to end birthright citizenship, "because that's permanent." But neither the House of Representatives or the Senate has passed a measure to help Trump achieve his goal.

Two Republicans tried to push Trump's promise forward, without success.

Rep. Steve King of Iowa introduced a bill January 2019 so that U.S. citizenship would only apply to a person born to a U.S. citizen or national, to a lawful permanent resident, or to an immigrant in active military service. Rep. Brian Babin of Texas in February 2019 introduced a resolution that expressed disapproval of birthright citizenship, saying the 14th Amendment "has been manipulated and abused by illegal aliens to unfairly gain citizenship for their children and incentivizes illegality." The bill and the resolution were each referred to a House committee and subcommittee, but there was no House vote on either of them.

Legal experts have told PolitiFact that birthright citizenship is bolstered by both the Constitution and by statute. An attempt to end the practice through executive order is bound to be challenged in court, they said.

To date, Trump has not succeeded in his pledge to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents illegally in the country. We rate this a Promise Broken.