On Sunday, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a sycophant to President-elect Donald Trump, praised Trump’s push to end birthright citizenship.
“We are one of a handful of countries in the world that allows birthright citizenship,” Graham said in his post. “If you’re born in the United States, you’re automatically an American citizen. This and birth tourism from developed countries like China have become one of the biggest magnets for illegal immigration.”
“I have introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship, and I’m now working on a constitutional amendment to put an end to this practice once and for all,” Graham added.
To end birthright citizenship would mean amending the U.S. Constitution, whose 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States.” For a new constitutional amendment to take effect, it needs to be passed by a two-thirds majority vote in each chamber of Congress as well as ratified by 38 of 50 state legislatures.
Graham’s comments followed Trump’s Sunday appearance on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” where he declared he would move to end birthright citizenship.
“We’re going to end that because it’s ridiculous,” Trump said in the interview. “We’re the only country that has it, you know.”
Trump’s claim that America is the only country with birthright citizenship is false. More than 30 countries have it, according to a 2018 report by the Library of Congress. However, that mattered little to Graham, who was focused on how it “cheapens” American citizenship.
“I believe legal immigration is important to our economy and future,” Graham continued. “However, birthright citizenship and birth tourism … cheapen American citizenship.”
He concluded with his usual flair: “I look forward to working with President Trump to go beyond his executive order and end this disastrous policy once and for all.”
Such a move would directly challenge the landmark 1868 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which upheld the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of full citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parent’s immigration or citizenship status.
Graham has long advocated for ending birthright citizenship. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, he said, “Finally, a president willing to take on this absurd policy of birthright citizenship. And in a series of posts railing against the constitutionally protected right, he declared his plans to introduce legislation in the Senate.
This past September, he did just that.
“This legislation will change the laws that exist today,” he said in a press conference announcing his bill, the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2024. “There’s an 1898 Supreme Court ruling that basically suggested that if you’re born in America, you’re automatically a citizen. I do not believe that is a sound policy to have, and the Supreme Court will revisit this if challenged.”
This push to end birthright citizenship comes on the heels of a 2020 Trump administration policy that sought to curb “birth tourism”—a purported practice where foreign nationals travel to the U.S. to give birth, hoping their child will be granted American citizenship. Through the State Department, the Trump administration restricted access to temporary visitor visas for foreign nationals hoping to give birth on American soil, though the administration didn’t provide a clear explanation of how it might know the intentions of pregnant travelers. (It also exempted 39 countries, most in Europe, from the rule.)
Graham’s relationship with Trump has been, to put it mildly, a rollercoaster.
In 2015, amid the Republican presidential primary, Graham called Trump a “jackass,” and Trump called Graham an “idiot.”
Eventually, Graham and Trump developed a friendship over their shared disdain for the Affordable Care Act. Since Trump’s first term, Graham has often aligned himself with Trump, from calling Trump’s impeachment hearings a witch hunt, to publicly defending Trump in the media.
However, earlier this year, the relationship hit a rough patch after Trump reportedly refused to back a federal abortion ban, leading to some reported tension between the two. Yet Graham has remained a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration policy—one of the agendas that swayed American voters to catapult him back into the White House.
By challenging the 14th Amendment, Graham and Trump are not just targeting immigration policy—they’re aiming to rewrite what it means to be an American.
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