The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that every child born "within the jurisdiction of the United States" is a U.S. citizen, regardless of their parent's immigration or citizenship status.

For over a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment as conferring U.S. citizenship automatically to anyone born on U.S. soil. Anti-immigrant political factions, however, have pushed to restrict birthright citizenship, attempting to deny it to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrant parents. This fact sheet explains: What is birthright citizenship? What are the Fourteenth Amendment and its interpretations? Who is eligible for birthright citizenship? Can birthright citizenship be taken away?