The Demographic Impacts of Repealing Birthright Citizenship
Highlights
Modeling shows that repealing birthright citizenship would swell, not shrink, the U.S. unauthorized population and create a hereditary underclass, this 2010 analysis shows.
- Repealing birthright citizenship for children of unauthorized immigrants would increase the unauthorized population rather than reduce it.
- Under a narrow repeal affecting children of two unauthorized parents, the unauthorized population would reach 16 million by 2050.
- By 2050, 4.7 million unauthorized residents would have been born in the United States, including 1 million with two U.S.-born parents.
- Repeal scenarios would create a self-perpetuating class of U.S.-born unauthorized people cut off from full membership for generations.
Repealing birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants, discussed in some circles as a means to reduce illegal immigration, would significantly increase the size of the unauthorized immigrant population in the United States, from 11 million today to 16 million by 2050.
Much of the debate surrounding the 2009 Birthright Citizenship Act and ensuing discussions have turned on the meaning and intent of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause and whether U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. As this brief explains, birthright citizenship repeal would set in motion the creation of a self-perpetuating class of unauthorized immigrants who would be excluded from social membership for generations.
This analysis shows that by 2050, there would be 4.7 million unauthorized immigrants who had been born in the United States, 1 million of whom would have two U.S.-born parents.
Table of Contents
I. Introduction
II. How Would Repeal Affect the Size of the Unauthorized Population?
III. Prospects for Hispanic Incorporation
IV. Perpetuating Disadvantage Across Generations
V. Differing Assumptions
VI. Conclusions
About the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy
The Center is a national hub connecting policymakers, educators, community leaders, and service providers with evidence-informed policy research, technical assistance, and data to advance effective immigrant integration at U.S., state, and local levels.
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