Posts being shared on social media claim Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, faces losing her US citizenship under an executive order signed by returning President Donald Trump. But this isn’t true.
On his first day of his second term on 20 January 2025, President Trump signed dozens of executive orders—including one on birthright citizenship.
Executive orders are issued by the president to the federal government and do not require congressional approval. However, they can potentially be blocked in other ways—potentially by Congress denying funding to relevant agencies, or by the courts.
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How does American citizenship work?
Under the 14th Amendment of the US constitution, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside”. This amendment currently grants anyone born in the US citizenship, regardless of their parents’ immigration status (bar a few exceptions, including children of diplomats).
But the new executive order, titled “Protecting the meaning and value of American citizenship”, claims the 14th Amendment has been misinterpreted in granting birthright citizenship in this way. The order says US-born children of parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas would be denied the automatic right to citizenship.
Does this affect Usha Vance?
A claim that this would also apply to Usha Vance, the Second Lady of the United States, has been circulating on social media since President Trump signed the order.
A post on Facebook says: “JD Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, will have her citizenship revoked if Trump signs his executive order banning birthright citizenship. Her parents were not US citizens at the time of her birth.”
However, this is not correct.
Firstly, the order would only apply to those born in the US from 30 days after it was signed on 20 January, 2025, and is not being implemented retroactively.
Mrs Vance was born in the suburbs of San Diego in 1986 to parents who emigrated from India to the US in the late 1970s. She spoke about her parents being immigrants during the Republican National Convention in July.
Full Fact has been unable to verify the citizenship status of Mrs Vance’s parents at the time of her birth, but can find no evidence that Mrs Vance’s parents were in the US illegally, or on temporary visas when she was born.
The new birthright citizenship executive order does not apply to children born to parents who are lawful permanent residents (green card holders), meaning that parents do not have to be full US citizens for their children to be eligible for citizenship.
And regardless of the immigration status of her parents, the new executive order does not affect the citizenship status of Mrs Vance, or anyone else born before the 30 days following the order being signed who obtains US citizenship by being born in the country.
However, the change to the constitutional right to citizenship through birth is likely to be subject to legal challenges—with the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of 18 states filing lawsuits against the executive order on birthright citizenship soon after it was signed.
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