President Donald Trump is calling on Congress to possibly amend the U.S. Constitution to end birthright citizenship, KCRA reports. The statement shifts the debate over automatic citizenship from executive action to the amendment process, which requires supermajorities in both chambers of Congress and ratification by the states.

The push targets the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, which states that all persons born in the United States are citizens. Any change to that guarantee would require a constitutional amendment rather than an executive order or ordinary statute.

What is the president proposing?

Trump says Congress should consider amending the Constitution to end birthright citizenship — the principle that children born on U.S. soil automatically receive American citizenship regardless of their parents' immigration status. The president has long argued that this policy incentivizes unauthorized immigration and so-called "birth tourism," and he previously sought to restrict it through executive action during his first term.

That earlier approach ran into immediate legal obstacles. Courts blocked previous attempts to limit birthright citizenship by executive order, on the grounds that the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause controls the question. The new call for congressional action effectively concedes that a durable change must pass through the amendment route.

Who would be affected?

The proposal, if it ever cleared the constitutional threshold, would affect children born in the United States to parents who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents. Under current law, those children acquire citizenship automatically at birth. Ending that rule would create a new category of U.S.-born children without citizenship at birth, raising separate questions about what legal status — if any — they would hold.

The measure would not take effect through the president's signature alone. A constitutional amendment requires:

• A two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, or a convention called by two-thirds of state legislatures;
• Ratification by three-quarters of the states (38 of 50).

No amendment has cleared that bar since 1992.

What changes procedurally?

For now, nothing. Birthright citizenship remains in force under the Fourteenth Amendment, and children born in the United States continue to receive citizenship at birth. The president's statement is a call for Congress to act, not a change in law or policy.

The practical implications for the moment are political rather than legal:

• Congressional leaders would have to introduce and schedule an amendment resolution;
• Any proposal would define which children, if any, retain birthright citizenship — for example, children of citizens or green-card holders;
• Advocacy groups and state attorneys general would be expected to contest any implementing legislation.

Why the amendment route matters

Legal scholars across the spectrum widely agree that the Fourteenth Amendment's text binds the executive branch. That consensus explains why earlier unilateral attempts stalled in court and why the president is now asking Congress to change the Constitution itself. The amendment process is deliberately difficult: it has succeeded only 17 times since the Bill of Rights, most recently in 1992.

Immigration policy organizations, including tracking outlets such as CIC News, note that proposals to end birthright citizenship surface regularly in U.S. politics but have never advanced far in Congress. The current call repeats that pattern, though it signals continued pressure on the issue heading into the legislative session.

Readers should follow official congressional records and White House statements for any formal amendment text. No bill, quota, deadline, or effective date exists yet — only the president's public call for Congress to consider the change.