President-elect Trump doubled down on his vow to end birthright citizenship, falsely claiming in his first post-election interview this weekend that the U.S. is the only country with the policy.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Trump told NBC News’s Kristen Welker, when asked whether he still plans to end birthright citizenship “on day one.”
“We have to end it. It’s ridiculous,” Trump said, adding, “Do you know we’re the only country in the world that has it? Do you know that? There’s not one other country.”
Trump said he would take executive action “if we can,” to circumvent the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the U.S., but added, “Well, we’re going to have to get it changed. We’ll maybe have to go back to the people. But we have to end it. We’re the only country that has it, you know.”
The U.S. introduced birthright citizenship in 1868, in the wake of the Civil War, changing the Constitution to guarantee citizenship to all former slaves and to any child born on U.S. soil.
But the U.S. is not alone in granting citizenship to people born on its soil.
There are 32 other countries — and two territories — that join the U.S. in having unrestricted birthright citizenship, while an additional 32 countries have a restricted birthright citizenship policy of some kind.
Notably, nearly all countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship are in North or South America.
In North America, the U.S. and both of its neighbors — Canada and Mexico — have unrestricted birthright citizenship, as do all seven Central American countries: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.
Unrestricted birthright citizenship exists in 10 of the 13 countries in the Caribbean: Antigua and Barbuda; Barbados; Cuba; Dominica; Grenada; Jamaica; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; and Trinidad and Tobago. Neither The Bahamas nor Haiti has a birthright citizenship policy, and the Dominican Republic has “mildly restricted” birthright citizenship, according to the World Population Review.
In South America, 10 of the 12 countries have unrestricted birthright citizenship: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Suriname lacks a birthright citizenship policy, and Colombia has a restricted policy.
Unrestricted birthright citizenship also exists in Chad, Fiji, Lesotho, Tanzania and Tuvalu.
Across the rest of the world, however, unrestricted birthright citizenship is virtually nonexistent. Many of the closest U.S. allies have restricted birthright citizenship, oftentimes requiring at least one parent to be born in the country or to be a citizen. Other allies have no policy at all.
Among the 32 NATO member states, the U.S. and Canada are the only countries based in North America and also the only two countries with unrestricted birthright citizenship.
Twelve of the other 30 NATO member states have restricted policies: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
The other 18 countries have no such policy at all: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
Similar trends extend further east, with some countries offering restricted birthright citizenship and others lacking it altogether. Ukraine and Israel both have restricted birthright citizenship, as do Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and India.
Restricted birthright citizenship exists in some countries in the Indo-Pacific region — including Thailand, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Taiwan and Cambodia – but is lacking in other countries in the region.
China and Russia — two of the top US adversaries — lack such a policy.
