this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
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The End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act, introduced by Representative Morgan Griffith, a Virginia Republican, would amend federal laws that grant U.S. citizenship at birth to people born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands. The legislation would limit those provisions to people born before January 1, 2027, effectively ending automatic citizenship for future births unless at least one parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

Birthright citizenship is the legal principle that grants U.S. citizenship to most people born on American soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status. The administration has sought to restrict the long-standing interpretation of birthright citizenship, but those efforts stalled on June 30, when the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump's executive order.

The case that prompted the ruling, Trump v. Barbara, had addressed whether children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are entitled to citizenship at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause. The court held that such children are "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. The new proposal is part of the Trump administration's push to reduce immigration levels and tighten restrictions on who can qualify for U.S. citizenship.

So, what, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are no longer subject to the laws of the United States? So, there is no federal court in Puerto Rico exercising jurisdiction over the territory? What about the US Virgin Islands?

Does that mean they don't have to pay taxes to the fascist regime?

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[–] bradinutah@thelemmy.club 108 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Republicans who support this are just racists. No more. No less. Whether these Republicans are insane, incompetent, or evil, they are simply wrong. Stop discriminating against American babies!

[–] iltoroargento@startrek.website 62 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Republicans ~~who support this~~ are just racists.

At this point, if you're still hanging around with the fascists, you've become a fascist.

[–] bradinutah@thelemmy.club 15 points 2 months ago

This is a fair criticism. We are deep into a second Trump Presidency so there's no more excuses to being ignorant of the complicit fascism. We live in the information age of the 21st Century. It's past time to be ignorant or ill-informed of softly supporting evil.

[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Immigration law in the US is and has always has been racist. The first federal immigration law was called the Chinese Exclusion act for fucks sake.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not sure which way that one goes but in my mind it's a coin toss between "Chinese Exclusion" meaning to exclude Chinese from a general immigration ban (so they can provide cheap labour to railway makers) or to exclude Chinese from immigration (because racism).

[–] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

It was after the railroads had mostly been finished, so the racism took precedence. White conservatives got really scared that the Chinese would have enough population to gain significant political power. Sounds familiar?

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[–] X@piefed.world 27 points 2 months ago

Oh look, the fascists are doing racist shit. Must be a day that ends with a “y”.

[–] disorderly@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

And yet I'm sure these great thinkers don't want to admit any of these territories as states, and they don't want to relinquish their claims over them, so... What? They want to create an underclass of people on US soil who aren't a part of any nation?

Disgusting.

[–] Triumph@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I mean, yes, they want to create an underclass of people in US soil by any metric possible.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's, like, literally the entire point of conservatism.

[–] thethrilloftime69@feddit.online 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's the entire point of capitalism* ftfy

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[–] bw42@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It would end up probably like American Samoa, which its people are U.S. Nationals, not citizens.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 2 months ago (3 children)

John McCain wouldn't have been a citizen if this law had been in place at the time of his birth.

Not that they give a shit.

[–] btsax@reddthat.com 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

...both his parents were American?

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[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

The Republican party now recognizes that McCain was a loser, because winners don't get caught. If Trump wanted to revoke McCain's citizenship post-mortem, some scumsucker in the House would draft a bill.

[–] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

isn't it the opposite? They want to end the automatic citizenship by being born in the territory not when parents are citizens

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Okay but anyone born in DC doesn’t get to be a citizen either.

These people are so hateful.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Most people in DC are pretty progressive, actually

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I meant kids born to politicians working in DC would not be citizens.

I don’t actually want any of this. I was just making a point.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Politicians are rich. For every rich family, you have like a dozen families supporting their existence.

So the vast majority of the DC population is not rich, and they're mostly progressive.

[–] W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago

That isn’t relevant to my point.

This is about politicians causing harm to other families in a way they would be upset about if it happened to them.

My point was that if DC was treated the same they wouldn’t do it. And, if they wouldn’t allow it to happen in DC they should not be doing it to other people either.

They just want to hurt brown people.

Again, I am not actually advocating for people in DC to not be US citizens. I was just pointing out their hypocrisy.

[–] COASTER1921@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The politicians have money and therefore usually live in Virginia rather than DC proper.

[–] OwOarchist@pawb.social 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So they got shot down in court (by their own hand-picked court, no less!) for trying to do this nationwide, and now they think they can do it in US territories, like that's a special case where the US Constitution doesn't apply?

[–] bw42@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (3 children)

They can do it in the territories. The ones that grant citizenship by birth were giving that through Congress passing laws for it. American Somoa does not grant citizenship by birth, instead its people are U.S. Nationals, but not citizens.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago

American Somoa does not grant citizenship by birth, instead its people are U.S. Nationals, but not citizens

At this point, they should consider it a blessing.

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[–] ZombieCyborgFromOuterSpace@piefed.ca 9 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Make it retroactive, then kick everyone out back to their country of origin.

Let the natives take back their land and govern in their ancestral way.

Problem solved.

[–] NekoKoneko@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Republicans: Yes, I support this, because I am from America and obviously it means they'll kick out everyone but us.

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[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Not that they care, probably, but doesn't this run against UN conventions because these people would essentially be stateless?

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Birthright citizenship is by no means the standard. It's not rare, but most of the world does not use it. Most of them are in the Americas, but that whole thing gets complicated.

Most countries grant citizenship to the children of their citizens. IOW, the child inherits citizenship from its parents. If nothing else, the mother is going to be known by nature of the birth, and the child would have at least her citizenship.

(Exceptions exist, but they exist for Jus Soli as well)

[–] farmgineer@nord.pub 3 points 2 months ago

This is true. I was thinking of some worst-case scenarios as to implementation where they decide that those people who gave birth to those children weren't really American or whatnot. I would not put it past the administration to deny applications for any and every reason they think they can get away with.

[–] Sunflier@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

UN conventions because these people would essentially be stateless?

You think the cult cares?

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[–] aramis87@fedia.io 8 points 2 months ago

Twofold thoughts on this. First, it's the same thing they do everywhere: if they can't get the big win, they start chipping away at the edges, the fringe cases that let them establish precedents they can use later.

And secondly, it's a defensive move, to further differentiate the territories from the states, so that future efforts to give statehood to these areas will fail. In a really cynical viewpoint, it establishes subservient status for territories, including future "acquisitions" like they keep referring to

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wouldn't that be unconstitutional unless those territories are removed from US jurisdiction?

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[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 4 points 2 months ago

Is this news? They have stated they want to and attempted to end birthright citizenship more then once.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 4 points 2 months ago
[–] notannpc@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

This is anti-American legislation. And as the Supreme Court established, its unconstitutional. If these territories are US soil, then the people born there are US citizens. If this bill isn’t rescinding US sovereignty it’s just more illegal, racist bullshit.

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