GOP Split Over Birthright Citizenship as Supreme Court Weighs Ruling-Poll
A new poll found that 44 percent of Republicans support birthright citizenship, as the Supreme Court is weighing its decision in a case about an executive order signed by President Donald Trump establishing that children of temporary visitors and illegal immigrants are not U.S. citizens by birth.
Last month, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, which centers around whether Trump’s executive order complies with the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Nationality Act of 1940, which has been understood as making everyone born in the U.S. a citizen, with exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and invading armies. The order was met with multiple lawsuits, and courts have prevented it from taking effect.
More than a quarter-million babies born in the U.S. each year would be affected by the order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State University's Population Research Institute.
The poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research released on Wednesday found that about two-thirds of U.S. adults support automatic citizenship for all children born in the country, but some oppose birthright citizenship in some circumstances.
Just under half of the respondents said children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country illegally should be granted automatic citizenship, while 75% said children born in the U.S. to parents who are in the country legally on work visas should be granted automatic citizenship.
The poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 and the margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.
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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 7:44 AM.