US President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office and among them was the order to end birthright citizenship. Few social media users started to claim that Vice President JD Vance’s wife Second Lady Usha Vance “will have her citizenship revoked” under Trump immigration plan. Birthright citizenship, guaranteed under the US Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, is a legal principle under which citizenship is granted automatically to an individual upon their birth on US soil. The viral text of the social media claim read, “BREAKING - Vice President JD Vance's wife will have her citizenship revoked if Trump signs his executive order banning birthright citizenship. Neither of her parents were US citizens at the time of her birth.” BREAKING - Vice President JD Vance's wife will have her citizenship revoked if Trump signs his executive order banning birthright citizenship. Neither of her parents were US citizens at the time of her birth. — Crazy Fenak (@CrazyFenaker) January 20, 2025 The post on X received over 71,000 likes in one day and a similar post on Threads also had a traction of over 14,000 likes. According to USA Today, Second Lady Usha Vance is a citizen of the United States and hence, the birthright citizenship order by Trump will have no effect on that. The order’s text states that it applies only to people who are born more than 30 days after it was issued. A Community Guideline was also issued on the viral X post which said, “Usha's citizenship will be unaffected because the order only applies to people born 30 days from signing, not retroactively.” The guideline posted the order’s official link and quoted: “(b) Subsection (a) of this section shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order." The birthright citizenship order by Trump is not retroactive, meaning it only applies to those who are born after February 19, 2025 as the order was issued on January 20 and comes into effect 30 days after it was signed. The order has already been challenged in the US courts and if the courts uphold Trump’s citizenship gamble, then a child born after February 19 would not automatically be a citizen of the US at the time of birth if: The child’s mother is unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident, or The presence of the child’s mother in the US was lawful but temporary, and the child’s father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident. (with inputs from USA Today)
