<P> The Fourteenth Amendment provides that children born in the United States become American citizens regardless of the citizenship of their parents . At the time of the amendment's passage, three Senators, including Trumbull, the author of the Civil Rights Act, as well as President Andrew Johnson, asserted that both the Civil Rights Act and the Fourteenth Amendment would confer citizenship on such children at birth; however, Senator Edgar Cowan of Pennsylvania had a definitively contrary opinion . These congressional remarks applied to non-citizens lawfully present in the United States, as the problem of unauthorized immigration did not exist in 1866, and some scholars dispute whether the Citizenship Clause applies to unauthorized immigrants, although the law of the land continues to be based on the standard interpretation . Congress during the 21st century has occasionally discussed revising the clause to reduce the practice of "birth tourism", in which a pregnant foreign national gives birth in the United States for purposes of the child's citizenship . </P> <P> The clause's meaning with regard to a child of legal immigrants was tested in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898). The Supreme Court held that under the Fourteenth Amendment, a man born within the United States to Chinese citizens who have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States and are carrying on business in the United States--and whose parents were not employed in a diplomatic or other official capacity by a foreign power--was a citizen of the United States . Subsequent decisions have applied the principle to the children of foreign nationals of non-Chinese descent . </P> <P> Loss of national citizenship is possible only under the following circumstances: </P> <Ul> <Li> Fraud in the naturalization process . Technically, this is not a loss of citizenship but rather a voiding of the purported naturalization and a declaration that the immigrant never was a citizen of the United States . </Li> <Li> Voluntary relinquishment of citizenship . This may be accomplished either through renunciation procedures specially established by the State Department or through other actions that demonstrate desire to give up national citizenship . </Li> </Ul>

What did the 14th amendment to the constitution do