"So embarrassing that this is now our DOJ" — Internet reacts to Trump's birthright citizenship bid not recognizing Native Americans as US citizens

On Friday, January 24, Neal Katyal—an American lawyer and legal scholar—tweeted about the US Justice Department defending Trump's birthright citizenship order. Their argument stated that the children of Native Americans were not considered citizens of the US.

Katyal's tweet has since gone viral, receiving over 2.3 million views, 20K likes, and 6K retweets as of this writing. Subsequently, netizens had divided reactions to it, with one of them commenting,

"Do they not know that the Indian Citizenship Act, enacted in 1924, granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S.? So embarrassing that this is now our DOJ."

Some netizens compared the argument by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the one that Hitler had praised in his autobiography.

"Seems the only way to fulfill that contention is to admit that Native Americans own this land and therefore America belongs to them. Anything the US government does currently is as an agent of Native Americans and they can start making all the damn rules. As it should be," commented an X user.

"This is the same argument that Hitler praised in Mein Kampf & took from America to create the Nuremberg Laws… per historians John Q Whitman & John Toland," added another.

"What wild, unhinged multiverse have we been thrust into, where reality feels like it’s unraveling thread by thread?" replied a netizen.

Meanwhile, other netizens seemed to agree that because the Native Americans enjoyed certain privileges due to their special status and were not under the jurisdiction of the US, the defense for Trump's order made sense.

"True - Indians living on reservations (as almost all Indians once did) are not citizens of the United States because they are not under the jurisdiction of the United States. Jurisdiction for Indians on reservations is Tribal. Obviously," posted an X user.

"Seems like a reasonable argument. If both parents are here on a temporary H-1B visa and hold allegiance to India, then they might not be 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the U.S in the same way as lawful permanent residents, the Act of 1924 notwithstanding," wrote a netizen.

"Well to be fair... Native Americans get special rules that the rest of the us do not. So i'd say they are technically not Americans, even though I personally would consider them just as American as the rest of us. Probably need to remove a lot of their special privileges though," replied another.

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 declared that Native Americans born within the United States are US citizens. However, there is an exception for persons not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the federal government.

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Trump's order about birthright citizenship was blocked in court

Neal Katyal's tweet comes after Trump's executive order, aimed at denying automatic birthright citizenship, was restrained in the federal court. Per Business Today on January 24, Judge John Coughenour—a federal court judge—called the order "blatantly unconstitutional" and issued a temporary restraining order against it.

In the court proceedings, Judge Coughenour conveyed his skepticism regarding the constitutional validity of Trump's executive order, saying:

"I am having trouble understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that this order is constitutional."

Per the federal judge, Trump's order was in violation of the Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on US soil. Several states, including Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Illinois, agree with this sentiment, along with immigrant organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

The order, which has currently been restrained, could deny citizenship to over 150,000 children born in the US every year in case it is upheld.

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Business Today also reports that the impending deadline issued by Trump in his executive order has led many expecting parents to rush to give birth. An Indian-origin gynecologist claimed to have received multiple calls from couples who sought to schedule C-sections before the February 20 cutoff.