President-elect Trump doubles down on his pledge to abolish birthright citizenship, falsely claiming the U.S. is the only country with the policy in place in his first post-election interview this weekend. I did it.
Asked by NBC News' Kristen Welker if he intended to abolish birthright citizenship “on day one,” President Trump replied, “Yes, absolutely.”
“We have to end it. It's ridiculous,” President Trump said, adding, “You know we're the only country in the world that has it? You know that. There's no other country.”
President Trump said he would take executive action “if possible” to circumvent the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States, but added, “Well, we have to change that. “Maybe,” he added. Maybe I have to go back to my people, but I have to finish it. We're the only ones who have that, you know. ”
The United States introduced birthright citizenship in 1868 after the Civil War, changing the Constitution to guarantee citizenship to all former slaves and all children born on U.S. soil.
However, the United States It is not just one person who gives citizenship. To the people born on that soil.
Thirty-two other countries (and two territories) have unrestricted birthright citizenship similar to the United States, and an additional 32 have some kind of restricted birthright citizenship policy.
In particular, nearly all countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship are located in North or South America.
In North America, the United States and its neighbors Canada and Mexico have unrestricted birthright citizenship, as do seven Central American countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
Ten of the 13 countries in the Caribbean region, including Antigua and Barbuda, have unrestricted birthright citizenship. Barbados; Cuba; Dominica; Grenada; Jamaica; Saint Kitts and Nevis. Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; and Trinidad and Tobago. According to the World Population Review, neither the Bahamas nor Haiti have birthright citizenship policies, and the Dominican Republic has “moderately restrictive” birthright citizenship policies.
In South America, 10 out of 12 countries have unrestricted birthright citizenship: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Suriname does not have a birthright citizenship policy, and Colombia has a restrictive policy.
Unrestricted birthright citizenship also exists in Chad, Fiji, Lesotho, Tanzania, and Tuvalu.
However, in other parts of the world, unrestricted birthright citizenship is virtually non-existent. Many of the United States' closest allies restrict birthright citizenship, often requiring at least one parent to be born in or be a citizen of that country. Other allies have no policy at all.
Among NATO's 32 member states, the United States and Canada are the only ones based in North America, and they are also the only countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship.
Of the remaining 30 NATO members, 12 have restrictive policies: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Eighteen other countries have no such policy at all: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. ,Turkey.
Similar trends extend further east, with some countries offering limited birthright citizenship and others having none at all. Ukraine and Israel restrict birthright citizenship, as do Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and India.
Restricted birthright citizenship exists in some countries in the Indo-Pacific region, including Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Cambodia, but not in other countries in the region.
America's biggest adversaries, China and Russia, lack such a policy.
