An old clip of conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk is making the rounds on social media, showing a 2025 debate with a college student on birthright citizenship, just as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the issue Wednesday.
While the student argued that the president’s executive order would create a kind of second-class citizenship and punish children for their parents’ choices, Kirk pushed back, saying birthright citizenship as we know it has effectively devalued American citizenship. He added that citizenship in the greatest country in the world should be earned, not handed out.
🚨Charlie Kirk Debates College Student on Birthright Citizenship
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 2, 2026
“If you think you can just get on a Delta Airlines flight from Paris, and all the sudden your kid becomes a U.S. citizen, that devalues the meaning of what it is to be a citizen.” pic.twitter.com/vPADrzSnP5
"The 14th Amendment was largely applicable to free slaves," Charlie said.
"I understand that was the purpose, but it has also been extended to those who come here illegally," the young man replied.
"Exactly. No, you're right. It has been wrongly extended."
"By the Supreme Court."
"Exactly. And they got it wrong," Charlie said. "Just like how they got Roe vs. Wade wrong, and we got that repealed. The point being is the Supreme Court can get things wrong. The idea, it's very simple. It's that if you think you can just get on a Delta Airlines flight from Paris, and all of a sudden your kid becomes a U.S. citizen, that devalues the meaning of what it is to be a citizen."
The college student argued that denying citizenship to children of illegal immigrants effectively creates a second-class citizen, someone who doesn’t belong to the United States or their parents’ country of origin. Charlie pushed back, using India as an example, saying the child would automatically be a citizen of their parents’ home country and that the solution is simply deporting the illegal immigrants as a family.
"So the children should be deported as soon as they're born?" the young man asked.
"Yes, with their parents, absolutely," Charlie said.
The student then asked why we shouldn't encourage the children of illegal immigrants to become productive members of American society, to which the conservative commentator said absolutely not.
"It's not our job to open up our borders to every sad story around the planet," he said.
"The point being is this, and President Trump's executive order is phenomenal," Charlie added. "It goes back to this very basic question. What does it mean to be a citizen? And we're thrown around citizenship like frisbees every day. And it dilutes the meaning of the citizen, of what it means to be a U.S. citizen. We need to bring it back to actually say: Hey, you have to earn your citizenship. You are not given your citizenship."
So far, the Supreme Court appears skeptical about changing how the U.S. applies birthright citizenship, with even conservative justices questioning whether the proposed definition would align with the 14th Amendment’s original intent. It remains unclear if the Trump administration has any alternative path to pursue such a change.
