A plurality of American adults, including Hispanics, support a plan touted by President-elect Donald Trump to end the nation’s anchor baby policy that gives birthright American citizenship to the United States-born children of illegal aliens, a new poll finds.
The Economist/YouGov poll reveals that 45 percent of Americans back ending birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens — including 48 percent of white Americans and 42 percent of Hispanics.
Also, 50 percent of Americans earning $50,000 to $100,000 a year, 49 percent of Americans earning more than $100,000, and 66 percent of Republicans similarly support ending birthright citizenship.
A minority of 42 percent of Americans oppose ending birthright citizenship.
In an exclusive interview in May 2023, Trump told Breitbart News that he would sign an executive order on “day one” ending the anchor baby policy.
“On day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” Trump said.
A study from last year found that while fewer than 4-in-10 households headed by native-born Americans use at least one major form of welfare, nearly 60 percent of households headed by illegal aliens are on welfare.
The U.S.-born children of illegal aliens, known commonly as “anchor babies,” are rewarded with birthright citizenship despite their parents having no legitimate ties to the U.S., many having only recently arrived after crossing international borders.
Years later, when anchor babies become adults, they can sponsor their parents and foreign relatives for green cards — anchoring their family in the U.S. for generations to come. The prize of birthright citizenship is so coveted among foreign nationals that birth tourism has become a lucrative business.
As of 2023, there are about 5.8 million anchor babies in the U.S. — a population that exceeds the annual number of American births.
The U.S. Supreme Court has never explicitly ruled that the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens must be granted birthright citizenship, and many legal scholars dispute the idea.
Many leading conservative scholars argue the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment does not provide mandatory birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens or noncitizens, because these children are not subject to United States jurisdiction as that language was understood when the 14th Amendment was ratified.
The United States and Canada are among only a handful of developed nations, mostly in North and South America, that have a birthright citizenship policy for anyone, regardless of immigration status, born within its physical borders.
Australia, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, and Spain, among other countries, reserve birthright citizenship for children born to at least one citizen parent.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.