The Trump administration is considering a new passport rule that could make parents prove their own citizenship or immigration status when they apply for passports for their children. If adopted, the change would reach U.S.-born children through the paperwork their parents must file.
That is why the proposal is drawing attention now. On Tuesday, Tommy Pigott said President Trump would protect the meaning and value of American citizenship, and he said the State Department does not validate or chase leaked documents. The administration has not finalized the plan, but the draft guidance would require parental information and evidence of parental citizenship or immigration status as part of deciding whether an applicant is subject to EO 14418.
Under current practice, parents applying for passports for U.S.-born children generally must show proof of the child’s U.S. citizenship, evidence of their relationship to the child and photo identification. They are not generally asked to provide separate proof of their own citizenship or immigration status. The proposed rule would add that layer, and parents could be asked to submit passports, birth certificates or immigration paperwork.
The constitutional problem is obvious. The Fourteenth Amendment generally establishes birthright citizenship for people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court has recently ruled against Trump's efforts to restrict birthright citizenship. Dave Aronberg said an executive branch agency cannot rewrite the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution through passport paperwork, and he said he would absolutely expect immediate lawsuits if the policy is formally implemented.
Neama Rahmani said requiring parents to provide documentation is not necessarily unconstitutional by itself, but denying a passport to a U.S.-born citizen because of a parent’s immigration status would raise a far more serious constitutional problem. That is the pressure point in the policy: it could be used as an administrative checkpoint or as a de facto barrier for children whose citizenship is already protected under the Constitution.
For now, the administration is only considering the change, and the next step is unknown because no final decision has been announced. If the rule moves forward, the fight is likely to begin in court as soon as it is put into effect.
