President Trump on Monday declared that his government would no longer treat the U.S.-born children of undocumented people as citizens, signaling his intent to essentially ignore the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship in a move that is all but certain to invite a legal challenge.

特朗普总统周一宣布，他的政府将不再把无证移民在美国生下的子女视为公民，表明他意在从本质上无视宪法赋予的出生公民权，此举几乎肯定将招致法律挑战。

His order directed federal agencies not to issue citizenship documents to such children, starting in 30 days.

他的命令指示联邦机构从30天后开始不再向这类儿童发放公民身份文件。

It flew in the face of the guarantee, rooted in common law and enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years, that anyone born in the United States is automatically an American citizen.

这项命令公然违抗了源自普通法、并明文写入宪法150多年的保障，即任何在美国出生的人自动成为美国公民。

In the executive order, Mr. Trump said he would interpret the 14th Amendment differently than had been done in the past, arguing that it “has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

特朗普在行政命令中称，他会用与以前的不同方式解释宪法第十四修正案，称其“从未被解释为将公民身份普遍扩大到所有在美国境内出生的人”。

The order would mean that citizenship would not be extended to a child whose mother and father are not authorized to be in the United States at the time of birth.

这项命令意味着，如果父母在孩子出生时未获准在美国居留，那么孩子将不会被授予美国国籍。

Mr. Trump has long said that conferring American citizenship on the children of undocumented immigrants was unacceptable to him. But because birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, such an order would face major legal challenges. Any change to the Constitution requires supermajority votes in Congress, and then ratification by three-quarters of the states.

特朗普一直说，授予无证移民的子女美国公民身份对他来说不可接受。但由于出生公民权受宪法第十四修正案的保障，他的这项命令将面临重大法律挑战。对宪法的任何修改都需要在国会获得三分之二以上的赞成票，然后得到四分之三以上州的批准。

Here is what you need to know.

以下是你需要知道的。

The Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.

宪法保障出生公民权。

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

1868年正式生效的第十四修正案规定：“任何在合众国出生或归化并受其管辖者，均为合众国及所居住州公民。”

The part about jurisdiction creates a very narrow exception that has until now essentially applied only to children of accredited foreign diplomats. Other than that, the citizenship or immigration status of a person’s parents has not been held to have any effect on this right.

关于管辖权的部分创造了一个非常狭窄的例外，此前基本上只适用于得到正式承认的外国外交官的子女。除了这个例外，父母的公民身份或移民身份从未被认为对一个人的出生公民权有任何影响。

(The term “birthright citizenship” can also refer to another way a person can be born an American citizen: by having a citizen parent. This source of citizenship, created by federal law rather than directly by the Constitution, has not generally figured in the debate over immigration policy, but it comes up sometimes in presidential elections.)

（“出生公民权”一词也可以指另一种让人生来就是美国公民的途径：父母之一是公民。这种公民权是联邦法律赋予的，没有直接写入宪法，虽然通常在有关移民政策的辩论中无人提及，但在总统大选中有时会出现。）

Trump cannot abolish birthright citizenship by himself.

特朗普不能独自一人废除出生公民权。

A president cannot amend the Constitution on his own, and any executive order to restrict or abolish birthright citizenship is almost certain to be challenged in court as a violation of the 14th Amendment.

总统不能独自修改宪法，任何限制或废除出生公民权的行政命令几乎肯定会在法庭上受到违反第十四修正案的挑战。

But the official who described the forthcoming directive said the Trump administration would interpret the jurisdiction language in the amendment to exclude “the children of illegal aliens born in the United States.” Until now, the overwhelming scholarly and legal consensus has been that such an interpretation would have little or no chance of prevailing in court.

但描述即将出台的行政命令的官员称，特朗普政府会把修正案中“受其管辖”一词解释为不包括“非法外国人在美国生下的子女”。到目前为止，学术界和法律界的压倒性共识一直是，这种解释几乎没有在法庭上获胜的可能。

Some legal scholars think such arguments will continue to be nonstarters in the courts. But the idea that the Supreme Court may at some point find arguments for restricting birthright citizenship persuasive is “no longer laughable,” said Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia and an expert on immigration and citizenship law.

一些法律学者认为，这种解释在法庭上仍将无法获胜。但弗吉尼亚大学法学教授、移民和公民法专家阿曼达·弗罗斯特称，最高法院也许会在某个时候认为限制出生公民权的论据有说服力的想法“不再可笑”。

Limiting birthright citizenship was the consensus position among Republican presidential candidates in the 2024 election, and at least one federal judge has indicated a willingness to consider it.

限制出生公民权在参加2024年共和党总统候选人初选的人中是共识立场，而且至少有一名联邦法官已表示愿意考虑这个问题。

“I don’t think it’s inconceivable, which is what I would have said in 2019,” Professor Frost said. “The ground is shifting.”

“我认为这并非不可想象，但我在2019年就不会这样说，”弗罗斯特说。“情况正在发生变化。”

Mr. Trump’s allies have also suggested another way he could withhold the benefits of birthright citizenship from the children of undocumented people: by directing federal agencies to deny them citizenship-affirming documents like Social Security cards and passports as well as government services like public schools, health care, nutrition or housing benefits. Such a policy — acting as if the 14th Amendment did not apply to those people — would be very likely to draw a legal challenge as well.

特朗普的盟友们还暗示了另一种他能拒绝无证移民的子女享受出生公民权的方法：通过指示联邦机构拒绝向他们发放确认公民身份的文件，如社保卡和护照，以及拒绝让他们获得政府提供的服务，如在公立学校读书、医保、营养或住房福利等。这类政策很可能也将招致法律挑战——就好像第十四修正案不适用于那些人一样。

Other countries have birthright citizenship.

其他国家也有出生公民权。

Thirty-three countries and two territories — nearly all in the Western Hemisphere, including Mexico and Canada — have unrestricted birthright citizenship similar to that of the United States, according to a tally by the World Population Review.

据世界人口评论(World Population Review)统计，33个国家和两个地区（几乎都在西半球，包括墨西哥和加拿大）拥有与美国类似的不受限制的出生公民权。

Another 40 have restricted versions of the right. It may apply, for example, only to children of legal residents or of parents born in the country. Or it may exclude refugees.

另有40个国家和地区拥有某种受限制的出生公民权。例如，出生公民权可能只适用于在该国有合法居留权或在该国出生的父母的子女。或者难民的子女不享有出生公民权。

Several countries that, like the United States, had traditions of universal birthright citizenship rooted in English common law — including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and India — have restricted or abolished the right in recent decades.

有些国家曾与美国一样，传统上承袭了英国普通法中的普适出生公民权，包括英国、爱尔兰、澳大利亚、新西兰，以及印度，但这些国家已在近几十年里限制或废除了这项权利。

Critics of birthright citizenship say it encourages migration.

批评出生公民权的人士称，该权利鼓励移民。

Each year, thousands of pregnant women from other countries enter the United States on a valid visa, give birth to children who automatically gain American citizenship, and then take the babies back home or to a third country. The practice, sometimes called “birth tourism,” is legal as long as the mother obtains her visa truthfully and complies with its terms.

每年，成千上万来自其他国家的孕妇持有效签证进入美国，她们生下的孩子自动获得美国公民身份，然后她们把婴儿带回国或带到第三国去。这种做法有时被称为“赴美产子”，只要母亲在申请签证时如实告知情况，并遵守签证条款，这种做法是合法的。

Mr. Trump and his supporters, however, complain about expectant mothers who enter the country to give birth to what they derisively call “anchor babies” — children whose U.S. citizenship would give the family access to public benefits and a foothold toward legal residence.

但特朗普及其支持者对那些来美国生孩子的待产孕妇不满，讥讽她们生的是“定锚婴儿”——这些孩子的美国公民身份将使他们的家庭享受公共福利，并为合法居留提供基础。

The Migration Policy Institute estimates that, as of 2019, about 4.7 million American-born children under 18 were living with a parent who was undocumented — about 7 percent of all children in the United States. But studies have found that a vast majority of such children did not cross the border in utero. The Pew Research Center estimated in 2022 that about five out of six U.S. children of unauthorized immigrants were born two years or more after their parents entered the United States.

据移民政策研究所估计，截至2019年，约470万18岁以下的美国出生儿童生活在父母之一是无证移民的家庭中，约占美国所有未成年人的7%。但研究已发现，绝大多数这类孩子不是在母亲入境时就已经怀上的。皮尤研究中心在2022年的估计，非法移民在美国生下的孩子中约六分之五是在父母进入美国两年或更长时间后出生的。

Whether reared in the United States or abroad, American children of noncitizen parents have been able, once they reach age 21, to sponsor family members for legal permanent residency, just as any other American citizen could — a practice derided by critics as “chain migration.” Sponsorship by relatives has featured prominently in the stories of tens of millions of immigrants to the United States over the past century.

无论是在美国还是国外长大，非公民父母的美国孩子在年满21岁时，能够像其他美国公民一样，为家庭成员担保获得合法永久居留权。批评者把这种做法讥讽为“连锁移民”。亲属担保在过去一个世纪美国数千万移民的故事里一直是重要而常见的一部分。