Donald Trump recently signed an executive order intending to end automatic citizenship rights for children who are born to parents who are in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas. A new YouGov survey asked Americans under what circumstances a child born in the U.S. should automatically be granted citizenship.
51% of Americans say the statement that comes closest to their view is that “all children born in the U.S. should automatically become citizens,” while 39% align more with the offered alternative of, “children born in the U.S. should automatically become citizens only if their parents are citizens.”
Democrats (76%) are more likely than Independents (54%) or Republicans (26%) to say the statement that’s closer to their view is that all children born in the U.S. should automatically become citizens. 16% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans align more closely with the other option presented in the survey question — that children born in the U.S should automatically become citizens only if their parents are citizens.
Large majorities of Americans say that children born in the U.S. should automatically receive U.S. citizenship if their parents are U.S. citizens (95%) or if their parents are legal immigrants living in the U.S. (81%). Of nine immigration circumstances asked about, these are the only two in which majorities of Americans think children born in the U.S. should automatically receive citizenship.
43% of Americans — including 16% of Republicans and 66% of Democrats — think that children born in the U.S. should automatically receive citizenship if their parents are undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. 40% of Americans — including 17% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats — say the same for children whose parents are refugees or asylum seekers in the U.S.
The group Americans are least likely to say should automatically receive U.S. citizenship — of the nine asked about in the survey — is children born in the U.S. to parents who are tourists visiting the country. 25% of Americans, including 11% of Republicans and 41% of Democrats, think children born to tourists on American soil should automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
15% of Americans think children born to parents in all nine circumstances included in the poll should automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
57% of Americans correctly believe that the U.S. Constitution says all persons born in the U.S. are citizens, regardless of whether their parents were here legally. 20% do not believe the U.S. Constitution says this.
Republicans are nearly evenly split: 38% believe the Constitution says this and 36% say the Constitution says this. Among Democrats, 75% believe the Constitution says all people born in the U.S. are citizens and 8% think this is false.
In October 2018, Trump said he was preparing an executive order that would nullify birthright citizenship in the U.S. At the time, YouGov polling found that 23% of Americans expected the administration would end birthright citizenship while 54% said the administration would not do so.
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See the results for this YouGov survey
— Carl Bialik and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted January 27 - February 2, 2025 among 1,124 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult U.S. citizens. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 32% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.
Image: Getty
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