As Trump Vows to End Birthright Citizenship, Latine Immigrants Lean On Community

On January 20, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States of America. During his campaign, Trump vowed to brutally tackle immigration, specifically promising to end birthright citizenship and to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the federal government to expedite the deportation of immigrants from “a hostile nation” during a war. While promising at a rally in California to target “every migrant criminal network operating on American soil” with these policies, Trump is planning to use executive orders to achieve these goals as soon as he is sworn into office. The Latine community — which is disproportionately impacted by changes in immigration policy — is currently bracing for a difficult four years under a president that has used immigrants as his political targets. 

The birthright citizenship law has been distorted by Trump as a tool that is used by immigrant parents to stay in the United States through so-called “anchor babies.” In reality, it's an often long, difficult, and legal path to citizenship. While having a U.S.-born child might delay the deportation of their parents, it doesn’t safeguard parents from deportation. Even more, the process of a U.S.-born person sponsoring their parents can take more than 20 years. Despite this, Trump has called birthright citizenship a “magnet” for immigrants seeking to settle in the U.S., promising to do away with the codified right on the second day of his administration through executive order, in an attempt to make the deportation of parents of U.S.-born children faster and to avoid future immigration onto U.S. soil. 

According to Wendy Hess, an immigration attorney in Philadelphia, it is possible for Trump to overturn the birthright citizenship law, but it would have to be done through amendments rather than executive order. 

“Yes, it can be done, but he would have to go through amendments to the Immigration Act to do it,” Hess told Refinery29 Somos, noting that the right is protected under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. constitution. “He'd have to have the entire law amended.” This would be an extremely laborious and long process that is likely to end up in the Supreme Court, which some legal experts say would uphold the historical precedents of the country and rule against Trump, despite its conservative-majority.

Even with the hurdles of overturning birthright citizenship, what’s important to note is that Trump wants to speed up deportation processes, both through the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and through revoking birthright citizenship. “He wants to show promises made, promises fulfilled. He's going to try and strip away the lowest hanging fruit — asylum [seekers] and the border,” Hess said, adding that there is also the possibility that Trump will increase the number of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in sanctuary cities. 

Across the country, first-generation Americans are struggling with the possibility of being stripped from their citizenship, as well as worried for their undocumented family members and friends. For Briana Lugo Tinoco, a first-generation American whose family is originally from Colombia, Trump’s messaging around birthright citizenship has made her feel unsettled. 

“In the back of my head, I think I'm trying to act like it's not going to happen, but what if it does? It's very unsettling; it's scary,” Tinoco told Somos. “At the same time, I feel that it also just sends a message that first-generation Latinos and other first-gen immigrant kids, our identities as American, even if you're born in the States, is never going to be accepted, like it's always gonna be questioned no matter what.”

For many Latines, the looming threats of the incoming administration remind them of their violent familial histories with immigration and are a part of a bigger picture. Nicole Mata, who is originally from El Paso, Texas, but now works in Washington, DC, says she grew up watching her parents trying to do everything proper and moral so they had the right to stay in the United States. In 2014, under the Obama administration, her father was deported to Mexico, forcing her mother to provide for nine children by herself. 

“It's all in the name of [the American] dream, that’s what we're working toward and what we're pushing for,” Tinoco said. “We can do everything right to raise us — I mean, I'm currently working at the Capitol — and I still won't be enough for them, and what that looks and feels like is so strange to me, because it's a very stark reminder that all of us will never be enough.”

Many of the people interviewed for this article are also struggling with Trump voters within their families and Latine communities more broadly. Mata says she cannot comprehend how people in her family voted for Trump when they grew up witnessing the cruelty of border control and depended on social services to survive. “I have several family members who all received their citizenship all within the last 10 years and all voted for him, and it feels crazy to say that,” Mata said, expressing that she feels powerless in trying to de-radicalize people in her extended family. “We are entering this period of people feeling so emboldened to point out the other, and feel so opinionated to be like, ‘you're the problem.’” 

Concerns and anxieties around family separations are also high. For Nessa, whose location and last name will be omitted for the safety of her undocumented family members, there is a real fear that her undocumented father will be deported. “He's scared and we are, too, but he's just one of those people that lives in the shadows and just keeps moving forward, even if he's scared, because he knows my mom depends on him,” she said, adding that she has already been thinking about what to do if he is deported back to Mexico. “I don't even want to imagine it, but I always say, I'm going to make sure I get all of my dad's stuff that belongs to him, his money from his banks here, [and] send it over there.”

Most of Nessa’s immediate family has citizenship, but her father has not been successful in his path yet. As a first-generation American with an undocumented father, Nessa emphasizes that immigrants are always looked at negatively, despite providing the majority of manual labor in the country. “I do think a lot of it is just talk, but at the same time just talking [about mass deportation] is pretty scary,” Nessa said. ”Undocumented migrants don’t have a voice when it comes to voting, and I hate that immigration is a subject only for bad things recently; they never want to point out the good stuff.” 

When asked what immigrants and their families should do to mitigate the risks of the upcoming Trump administration, Hess emphasized that having a plan in case of deportation is essential for any family struggling with a lack of citizenship or visa documentation. “Put a plan of action together,” she said. “First consult with an immigration attorney, who only does immigration law. During that consultation, they should understand what their rights are because knowledge is power. Figure out what you're eligible to apply for in the event that you’re picked up. I also am a big believer in powers of attorney — what happens if I own a house, and I own a car, and I have a child who's even in 10th Grade. What happens to that child? What's my backup plan? What's my contact information?”

Additionally, Latines have communities to turn to in times of need. For Mata, this is the silver lining. “These leaders don't realize that they're pushing us toward the community,” she said. “When we realize that we can't depend on our government, we really have to depend on our community to help us get through this.”