President Trump’s first 3 children did not receive birthright citizenship
CORRECTION: The headline on this story has been corrected to show that Trump’s first three children did not receive birthright citizenship.
The Associated Press reviewed this story after it was surfaced to third-party fact checkers as part of an initiative with Facebook to assess the accuracy of news content.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: Mixture. It’s true that Ivana Trump was not a citizen until 1988, but the father of her children was a U.S. citizen and there would have been no special status needed to make them citizens.
THE FACTS: All the dates in the claim are correct. The couple married in April 1977, and Donald Trump Jr. was born months later that year in December. Ivanka was born in 1981, followed by Eric in 1984. All three Trump children were born in New York, making them U.S. citizens. Ivana Trump became a U.S. citizen in 1988, but she was legally living in the country.
Birthright citizenship stems from the 14th Amendment which says, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Trump this week proposed ending that status.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a person can gain citizenship if “at least one parent, including an adoptive parent, is a U.S. citizen by birth or through naturalization.” If Trump were to take away birthright citizenship, the Trump children would still be citizens because their father is a U.S. citizen.
Cori Alonso-Yoder, professor at American University Washington College of Law, told The Associated Press that there is a spectrum of authorization status. One cannot go from being unauthorized, or undocumented, to a citizen. Someone would need to have permanent residence status to gain citizenship. She also explained that because Trump’s suggestion to end birthright citizenship is vague right now, it does not clarify whether or not the administration would want one parent, or both parents, in the future to be U.S. citizens in order for their children to be citizens.
Here’s more information on Facebook’s fact-checking program: https://www.facebook.com/help/1952307158131536
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The Associated Press reviewed this story after it was surfaced to third-party fact checkers as part of an initiative with Facebook to assess the accuracy of news content.