AG Bird Leads States in Supporting Trump Birthright Citizenship Policy
Traditionally, a state attorney general is the people’s lawyer – an official who defends the rule of law, protects the rights of all residents, and exercises their authority without political or ideological bias.
The office is meant to stand above partisanship, serving farmers in Lamoni the same as families in Sioux City, new Iowans the same as old ones. Justice is supposed to be fair and steady – not steered by party platforms, campaign donors, or national political movements.
Unfortunately, in Iowa, that tradition is slipping.
Do Bird’s priorities align with what Iowans want?
This month, homeschooled Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced that she is co-leading a legal effort with 24 other states to challenge birthright citizenship – the constitutional guarantee that any child born on American soil is an American citizen. The Republican AGs intend to end birthright citizenship for some children born in the United States.
The effort is tied to defending an executive order issued by President Trump to modify Constitutionally protected birthright citizenship rights. Earlier this year the Supreme Court handed Trump a partial win, curbing nationwide injunctions and letting parts of his birthright citizenship ban move forward – while neatly dodging the question of whether the ban itself is even constitutional.
Instead of focusing on protecting Iowans from fraud, crime, or corporate abuses, Bird is using her office (our office) to advocate for a national ideological project pushed by Donald Trump and the Christian Nationalist policy network surrounding Project 2025.
It’s a move that does not make Iowa safer, stronger, or more unified – but it does align with a broader agenda to divide Americans into “real” and “less real,” based on ancestry and immigration status.
This issue goes far beyond legal briefs and political headlines. It reaches into Iowa’s history, identity, and future.
What birthright citizenship means
Birthright citizenship is simple. If a child is born here, that child is an American.
This principle has been in place for more than 150 years, since the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868. It was adopted to ensure that no one born in this country could be treated as less than fully American, regardless of family background, race, or heritage.
It is one of the clearest and most straightforward promises in our Constitution.
Why this matters to Iowa
Iowa has always been shaped by families who came here from somewhere else – whether from Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Mexico, Somalia, Vietnam, Bosnia, or Sudan.
Many of our rural towns, farm operations, small businesses, schools, and churches depend on new families coming, working, staying, and raising children here.
Ending birthright citizenship would not just change the law. It would change who gets to belong. It would say that some children – even if they are born in Iowa – are less American than others.
That goes against who we are.
Iowa’s proud history of welcoming immigrants
Iowa has never defined belonging by bloodline.
Our communities were built by newcomers – Irish railroaders, German farmers, Mexican laborers, Sudanese refugees, and more. The values we claim – neighborliness, decency, fairness – depend on seeing each other as human beings first.
To strip children of citizenship is not just a legal argument. It is a statement of who counts, and who does not. And that is a line Iowans have never accepted.
The practical impact
If birthright citizenship ends, Iowa would see smaller rural school enrollments, a decline in local workforces, fewer young families starting businesses or farms, and less economic stability in small towns.
At a time when many rural areas are already struggling to keep their populations steady, this policy would push communities further toward decline.
This is not just a legal question. It’s a economic, hometown, main-street, kitchen-table question.
Iowa values fairness
Most Iowans believe that you don’t punish children for the circumstances of their birth. If someone lives here, works here, and raises a family here, they are one of us. We treat people with dignity because it’s the right thing to do.
These aren’t partisan values. They are Iowa values.
We can have honest conversations without losing ourselves
Immigration policy is complicated. Border policy requires real debate and real solutions. People can disagree in good faith.
But making babies less American is not a solution. It is something else entirely.
We can talk about how to improve immigration law. We can talk about fairness in the system. We can talk about border enforcement. But we don’t start by rewriting who counts as a person.
The bottom line
Birthright citizenship is one of the most important protections for equality in American law. Removing it would undermine community stability, family unity, workforce security, and Iowa’s future.
We shouldn’t lose sight of who we are. Iowa is a place where everyone deserves a fair chance, especially a child born on our soil.
Let’s protect that tradition – for all of us.