Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, said in a post on X on Monday that the United States operates what he described as an "illegal suicidal" system of birthright citizenship and argued it requires far stricter limits on who is permitted to enter the country:
"One point not made enough on immigration: when you have a national program (an illegal suicidal one) of granting "birthright" citizenship to the child of any and every foreigner who sets foot on your soil, you must be infinitely more cautious about who to allow into your country"
One point not made enough on immigration: when you have a national program (an illegal suicidal one) of granting “birthright” citizenship to the child of any and every foreigner who sets foot on your soil, you must be infinitely more cautious about who to allow into your country.
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) December 23, 2025
The remarks align with a broader push by the Trump administration to overturn the long-standing principle that nearly all children born on U.S. soil are automatically citizens. A New York Times report published Tuesday noted that Miller has increasingly framed immigration not only as a concern about new arrivals, but about their U.S.-born children and future generations.
Miller has also argued that immigration produces lasting social and economic costs, a claim that economists and migration researchers have repeatedly disputed.
In recent media appearances, Miller has cited communities such as Somali Americans as examples of what he calls multigenerational failure to assimilate. In a recent Fox News interview he said:
"With a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example her. You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate"
Researchers, however, have rejected that framing. Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. immigration policy program at the Migration Policy Institute, told NYT that data consistently show that children of immigrants attain higher education and earnings than their parents and demonstrate strong integration over time. "Study after study has demonstrated the upward mobility of children of immigrants," she said.
The debate comes as the Supreme Court has agreed to hear Trump's challenge seeking to end birthright citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants and some temporary residents. The order, signed on Trump's first day back in office, has been blocked by lower courts, which ruled it conflicts with the Fourteenth Amendment.
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