Birthright citizenship approved by most Americans, even after Trump tried to repeal it

President Donald Trump reentered the Oval Office in January, and on his second day back in office, he signed an executive order that sought to reinterpret the constitutional language that gives citizenship to nearly every child born in the United States, regardless of their parents’ legal status.

The order sparked a constitutional and immigration frenzy earlier this year, with questions and concerns over what it could mean for expecting parents and those who had already been granted citizenship under the long-standing right.

While many Americans support Trump implementing campaign promises to crack down on immigration, taking away birthright citizenship may not be very popular among the American public.

The just-released, nationally representative American Family Survey finds more than two-thirds of respondents (70%) say they recognize birthright citizenship as a constitutional right. Just 15% say they do not believe the Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship and 16% are unsure.

The American Family Survey, now in its 11th year, is a collaboration of Brigham Young University’s Wheatley Institute, BYU’s Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy and Deseret News. YouGov polled 3,000 U.S. adults between Aug. 16-18, 2025, and the margin of error is plus or minus 2.1%

A birthright guarantee under the Constitution is an issue most Americans believe, regardless of political party affiliation. Democrats resoundingly (86%) believe it’s a constitutional right, but the issue is also largely supported by Republicans (53%) and independents (65%).

What is birthright citizenship?

Birthright citizenship is the guarantee of citizenship to nearly all babies born in the United States. It stems from the Fourteenth Amendment, and is largely interpreted to say that children born in the U.S. are citizens, even if their parents are not.

Trump’s order said children born to parents who are not in the U.S. lawfully or are here on a temporary visa should not be considered citizens.

Birthright in the courts

Several lawsuits challenged the constitutionality of Trump’s order and the administration, through the emergency docket process, brought the case to the Supreme Court earlier this year.

The multiple lawsuits were consolidated for Supreme Court review, but expectant mothers, immigrant rights groups, many states and others challenged Trump’s order.

Lower courts issued nationwide injunctions, which prevented the administration from enforcing the order or ending birthright. The judges noted that Trump would have a difficult time defending the constitutionality of the order. The administration then turned to the high court for help, asking the justices to limit the scope of injunctions enacted by the lower-court judges.

In their ruling in June, the justices largely focused on the universal injunctions matter and did not explicitly touch on the birthright citizenship issue. The decision was split 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines and limited judges’ power to issue universal injunctions on policies implemented by any administration.

Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, arguing that the administration asked the court to focus on the injunctions instead of a lower court’s birthright ruling because it would have to prove that Trump’s order is constitutional before the judges.

Trump and other administration officials celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision. The president said in late June that he would “promptly file” to advance matters blocked by judges through nationwide injunctions, including birthright citizenship.

Trump’s order, however, remains on hold after the Supreme Court’s decision. Lower court rulings have played out since June, largely under the radar as the administration has not sought emergency relief from an appeals court or the Supreme Court — likely because the administration believes it is going to lose, experts say.

Even though Trump officials are letting their foot off the gas pedal when it comes to birthright citizenship, it never was a very popular executive action among the American people.

What Americans think of birthright citizenship

While showing that Americans largely understand the Constitution to guarantee birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. regardless of their parents’ status, the 2025 American Family Survey finds views on the issue more polarized than ever.

Americans also largely support birthright citizenship as a concept, the survey found. The idea earns strong support of 43% of respondents and that 16% somewhat support it, for a total of 59%. According to the polling, 18% of respondents neither support nor oppose birthright citizenship, while 9% somewhat oppose and 13% strongly oppose it, for a total of 22% opposed.

Support varies by political identification, with Republicans offering up the least support (31%) for birthright citizenship. It’s a likely response from GOP-identified respondents, as immigration-related issues have become a large issue for the party within the last decade. Democrats showed the most support for birthright citizenship (86%) and independents also supported it (56%). Republicans and independents responded at a near-equal level to say they neither favor birthright citizenship nor oppose it, the survey found.

The view on immigration policy

Attitudes about what should be considered “high priority” for U.S. immigration policy varied by partisanship. Democrats supported uniting families and helping asylum-seekers, but those are policies rejected by most Republican respondents. Republicans overwhelmingly supported limiting the overall number of immigrants coming to the United States (70%). Close to half of Republicans chose it as their only immigration priority.

Americans’ positive views about birthright are striking, particularly as most report not knowing someone who has experienced impacts of U.S. immigration policy. Just 23% of respondents report knowing a direct family member, close friend, or an acquaintance or coworker who has been impacted by visa delays, deportation or family separation, and the majority say they do not have a personal relationship with anyone impacted. Those who know someone impacted by immigration policy were more likely to say uniting families, helping asylum-seekers and admitting workers based on skill were top priorities.

Asked if they favor deporting undocumented immigrants, even when it separates parents from children who are natural-born citizens through birthright citizenship, 48% were opposed. One-quarter favor deportations, even if it causes families to separate, and many are neutral (28%) on the matter.

The views on family separation are varied by political party identification. About 8 in 10 Democrats oppose an undocumented parent being deported and separated from America-born children, while about half of all Republican respondents support the idea.

Christopher F. Karpowitz, professor of political science at BYU, a co-investigator of the survey study and a senior scholar the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU, said, “I think it’s a big deal that basically Republicans have decided that the most important thing to them is limiting immigration of all kinds.”

“They’re not interested in reuniting families even when the child is a U.S. citizen,” Karpowitz said.

He noted that 7 in 10 adults recognize birthright citizenship is in the Constitution, but “Republicans just don’t support it at all, which is very shocking to me and I don’t think that would have been the case in earlier years.”

“Although we’ve been asking this (question) for a while, opinions are more polarized than they ever have been before,” Karpowitz said, noting that neither side will budge or work with the other.