Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to clarify the 14th amendment does not provide for automatic citizenship for the children of aliens.

Core Policy Mechanism Top 1

Restrict Birthright Citizenship via Constitutional Amendment

• Population Scope High The amendment would affect all children born on U.S. soil to parents who are neither citizens, nationals, nor lawful permanent residents — a population numbering in the hundreds of thousands annually based on current birth rates to undocumented and temporary-status immigrants. Beyond newborns, the amendment's ratification would prospectively affect every future birth in this category indefinitely, and retrospective questions could arise for existing individuals depending on implementing legislation.
• Budgetary Magnitude Low The joint resolution contains no appropriation, authorization of funds, or budgetary provision of any kind; it is a proposed constitutional amendment that redefines a legal standard without directing any expenditure. Any downstream administrative costs would arise only from future implementing legislation authorized by Section 2, not from this text itself.
• Legal / Regulatory Depth High The amendment would substantively alter the constitutional baseline for birthright citizenship by redefining 'subject to the jurisdiction of the United States' in the 14th Amendment — eliminating an existing constitutional right to citizenship for a class of persons born on U.S. soil and establishing a new parental-status requirement as a condition of that right. This is a fundamental restructuring of a constitutional entitlement, not a procedural change to agency conduct.
• Degree of Discretion Granted Medium Section 1 of the proposed amendment uses mandatory language ('may only be considered') that leaves no discretion in applying the parental-status threshold, making the citizenship determination rule. However, Section 2 grants Congress broad, open-ended authority to 'carry out this article through appropriate legislation,' conferring significant future discretion over implementing mechanisms, enforcement, and any edge cases not addressed in the amendment text itself.
• Implementation & Enforcement Burden Medium The amendment itself creates no enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or compliance requirements, but its adoption would require government actors — including federal immigration agencies, vital records offices, and courts — to verify parental citizenship or residency status at or after birth, imposing a new operational and adjudicative burden. The scope of that burden would depend substantially on implementing legislation authorized by Section 2, but the constitutional change inherently necessitates new status-determination processes for a large volume of births.
• Temporal Commitment High The proposed amendment contains no sunset clause, expiration date, or mandatory reauthorization requirement; once ratified, it would become a permanent part of the Constitution and could only be superseded by a subsequent constitutional amendment. Under the M6 framework, the absence of any forced revisit or expiry means it persists indefinitely until Congress and the states affirmatively act to undo it.