In June 2026, a rumor circulated online that U.S. Vice President JD Vance advocated for deporting noncitizens' U.S.-born children.
Social media users shared an alleged quote attributed to Vance: "If you're born in this country and your parents were not U.S. citizens then you should be deported."
Some posts included an image featuring the alleged quote along with a photo of the vice president and his wife, Usha Vance, suggesting the quote implied he was willing to deport his wife, who is the child of immigrants.
The quote was incorrectly attributed to Vance. There was no evidence he ever publicly said the words in question.
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo returned no relevant results from credible media outlets about such a quote, which would have been widely reported if Vance had truly said it.
Vance's press office declined to comment on the alleged quote.
The image accompanying the quote appeared to originate with a June 8 post by X user Captain Obvious (@TheFungi669).
While Vance did not explicitly say that noncitizens' U.S.-born children should be deported, he has criticized broad birthright citizenship, which stipulates that all people born within the United States are considered U.S. citizens from birth — regardless of their parents' nationality or immigration status.
During a January 2025 appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation," Vance spoke about Trump's executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship. Beginning around the 2:55 mark in the interview, Vance said:
If you are a lawful permanent resident or a legal immigrant who plans to stay, your children, of course, should become American citizens.
[…]
If you come here on vacation and you have a baby in an American hospital, that baby doesn't become an American citizen. If you're an illegal alien, and you come here temporarily, hopefully, your child does not become an American citizen by virtue of just having been born on American soil.
It's a very basic principle in American immigration law that if you want to become an American citizen and you've done it the right way, and the American people and their collective wisdom have welcome you into our national community, then you become a citizen.
But temporary residents, people who come in here whether legally or illegally and don't plan to stay, their children shouldn't become American citizens.
President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14160, titled "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," on Jan. 20, 2025, the day of Trump's inauguration.
The order aimed to challenge the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which states, in part, "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."
The order stated that:
the privilege of United States citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person's mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth, or (2) when that person's mother's presence in the United States at the time of said person's birth was lawful but temporary (such as, but not limited to, visiting the United States under the auspices of the Visa Waiver Program or visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa) and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person's birth.
As Snopes previously reported, if enforced, the order would not apply to Usha Vance, as it specified the changes would take effect 30 days after it was announced. As of this writing, the executive order remains blocked pending a Supreme Court ruling.
According to The Associated Press, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on whether Trump can legally enforce these changes in summer 2026.
For further reading, we fact-checked a claim that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, "Just because you're born on U.S. soil doesn't make you a citizen. Your parents must be U.S. citizens."