Anna Gorman, Campus Carrier news editor

President Donald Trump has recently redefined birthright citizenship an executive order denying citizenship to the children of undocumented parents.

According to the Associated Press, the order denies citizenship to those born in the U.S. after Feb. 19 whose parents are not U.S. citizens. It also forbids U.S. agencies from issuing or accepting documents recognizing these children’s citizenship.

Though this order is currently frozen by a federal district judge, preventing the Trump administration from implementing the order for 14 days, it continues to be a source of dread for many families. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents continue to forcibly remove children from schools and churches. 

“You can disagree with [Trump] about it, but you can’t say that it popped out of nowhere,” Department Chair of Political Science and International Affairs Eric Sands said. “He had been campaigning on doing this from early, early on, and had also campaigned on saying that he was going to try to do it through executive order from very early on.”

This order goes against the 14th Amendment of the Constitution – which promises automatic citizenship to those born on U.S. soil and was ratified in 1868 because of the landmark case Dred Scott v. Sandford – and was immediately challenged by at least five lawsuits by 22 states and several immigrants’ rights groups.

“The big part of the 14th Amendment [is] that it was intended to reverse Dred Scott,” Sands said. “To thoroughly reverse that, the 14th Amendment declared, ‘No, you are a citizen of the United States and the state in which you reside, if you were born and naturalized here.’ Trump is issuing an executive order that is directly opposed to the 14th Amendment.”

Sands said Trump’s order on birthright citizenship is a response to a lack of immigration enforcement by previous presidents.

“Different presidents have brought different levels of interest to the enforcement of a strict immigration policy,” Sands said. “It’s clear from the numbers during Biden’s administration that they didn’t seem to really be interested in enforcing immigration at all. So that pendulum swinging back, and now we’ve got someone in office who [has] immigration as one of his top priorities.”

Sands believes there was a similar lack of leadership in Congress.

“It’s certainly within the purview of Congress to establish immigration policy,” Sands said. “The problem is they have clarified immigration policy as it affects the U.S., and they haven’t responded to numerous changes on the ground, in terms of number of illegal immigrants coming to the country, and the problems with drugs and human trafficking. We’ve kind of turned a blind eye to all of that over the last four years.”

Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship also puts financial aid for undocumented students in limbo. As outlined in Republican document Project 2025, Trump looks to potentially end Biden’s student loan forgiveness programs. The document, drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls for denying federal financial aid to students at institutions that offer in-state tuition to undocumented students.

Applying for financial aid is also a source of anxiety for students with undocumented family members, as the key to filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form includes providing parents’ Social Security numbers. Private information like this is not guaranteed to be protected, according to a statement from the National College Attainment Network (NCAN). College advising groups are pushing for students to not fill out the form if they have undocumented family members, even if they need the financial support FAFSA offers.

Despite this, Director of Financial Aid Noemi Sarrion-Cortes said that these orders do not impact financial aid at Berry.

“The rest of the executive orders do not seem to affect financial aid, either,” Sarrion-Cortes said over email.

Currently, other colleges and private institutes are fighting a legal battle between what protections they can offer undocumented students or students with undocumented parents and what they can say and do in the face of a law. For example, colleges reserve the right to ask for a subpoena or warrant and take the time to consult lawyers, but they are not allowed to just hide students if ICE showed up on campus.

According to Inside Higher Ed, multiple campuses have come out with statements that reiterate the policies and protections they offer to undocumented students, and said they do not plan to aid ICE and immigration authorities unless they legally do not have a choice.

“If ICE comes down with information that a student at Berry College [came here] illegally across the border at some point earlier in his life and is here – I don’t think Berry College can obscure that fact or paper it over,” Sands said.

Sands said this executive order could set a precedent for future immigration-related executive orders made by future presidents.

“One of the things about an executive order is that it can be overturned by a later president who disagrees with some aspect of the immigration policy,” Sands said. “That, in a way, is why it’s important for Congress to step up and codify what they want the immigration policy to be. Otherwise, it’s just up to the whims of presidents. That would give us a greater clarity as to what U.S. immigration policy is and give presidents probably less room to wiggle in the margins.”

Sands said there are several steps colleges could take to support impacted students, such as provide access to immigration lawyers.

“Focusing on immigration law and trying to help out people who are in a position where their citizenship status is ambiguous, offering counseling and even programming on immigration, so people who are in that category have an idea of what options are available to them and they know they can get help – all of those things can be a help,” Sands said.

College President Steven Briggs will be traveling to the White House for meetings to discuss what the college should do next in response to these executive orders, according to an email from the Office of the President sent on Jan. 31.

Dean of Students Lindsey Taylor was unable to comment.