US Birthright Citizenship: What Donald Trump's move means and ‘what does the worst case scenario look like?’

US President Donald Trump has got the world talking about harsh measures he announced on the first day after taking office, one of them is the end of US birthright citizenship.

The legal principle, which guarantees citizenship to all the children born in the country, will be revoked when Trump's executive order will come into effect. The announcement has sparked a massive social media buzz where netizens are discussing the ‘constitutional validity’ of the order, how it will be implemented and the worst case scenarios associated with it. Several reddit users shared their thoughs in favour of Donald Trump's move and called it necessary.

What is US birthright citizenship? What Donald Trump's move means?

It is a legal principle in the United States which makes everyone born on the US soil to become eligible for American citizenship, it is also referred to as the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” in Latin.

Donald Trump's order, signed on Monday night, prohibits US citizenship to children born in the US to mothers who are in the country illegally and even legally on visas.

The order has been legally challenged by civil rights activists and more than 20 US states.

Donald Trump's order revoking US birthright citizen: How is social media reacting?

A reddit user, ‘Square_Hat9235’, expressed confusion over the the implementation of the order in coming days.

“So Attorney Generals of 20+ states are suing to block the executive order. My question is what happens now? Let’s say a federal judge blocks the order. Then what happens to the babies that are born after Feb 20th to impacted parents (undocumented as well as F1 or H1B parents)? [sic],” read a post by a reddit user.

Another user said that it will take some time to get clarity on the order and even suggested that the court will rule the order as “unconstitutional”

“People thought Trump was just joking during the campaign and really thought he wasn't serious about all of this, everyone who voted for him is about to find out. The state legislatures in Republican states are just as bad Trump is and are serious about working with him to push his agenda[sic],”

‘Country will no longer have rule of law’

Another reddit user wrote in the favour of US birthright citizenship and said that an order like this may lead to “cases where people born in the US, whose parents weren't citizens at the time of their birth (that can be anything from illegal immigrants to students and work visa holders) apply for a US passport and get denied”

Another situation would be the detention of such kids by ICE despite their parents being US citizens.

“Or worse, they get detained by ICE despite being US citizens and want to seek habeas corpus (to get out of this arbitrary arrest and detention). This will go all the way to the Supreme Court, which I expect, in normal situations, will vote 9-0 in favour of upholding the Constitution. But if they vote in any way to uphold the executive order (like by 5-4 or 6-3 or something), this will mean the Constitution is worthless. If the Constitution is worthless, then all laws are worthless and America is a dictatorship [sic],” explained the reddit user in the post.

Meanwhile, democrats and civil rights organizations are rallying to fight Trump in court, but legal battles could drag on before slowing the president down. Nearly two dozen states have already sued Trump over his executive order intended to limit birthright citizenship, part of his sweeping effort to curb immigration.