The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to children born in the United States, rejecting the Trump administration's effort to restrict birthright citizenship. Advocacy groups and lawmakers welcomed the decision but said the administration's immigration policies and challenges to birthright citizenship have raised broader concerns about democracy and immigrant rights.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on the first day of his second term that sought to prevent citizenship for babies born to at least one parent who is in the country illegally or legally through temporary visas. But many lower courts across the country found his order to be unconstitutional, so it was never implemented.
Immigrant rights advocates shared on Tuesday morning that the Supreme Court’s decision shows that fundamental rights can’t be stripped away through sweeping executive action.
Emilio Amaya, the executive director of the San Bernardino Community Services Center Inc., which helps people with citizenship and permanent residency applications, said that the supreme court’s decision should have been unanimous. Still, he believes the decision highlights a win for immigrant communities and toward “social integration.”
“It also helps [the United States] not to create a permanent underclass of people that are denied full rights to citizenship,” said Amaya. “I think it also protects children's rights, because at the end, the ones that we're going to be affected [were] children.”
U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, who sits on the Senate Judiciary’s Immigration Subcommittee, said in a statement that the decision was personal for him as the son of immigrants.
“The Constitution could not be clearer: if you are born in the United States, you are a citizen of the United States. Period. No ambiguity,” said Padilla.
Alvaro Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said Trump’s case against birthright citizenship was never about the law, but about the administration’s “xenophobic attack on core constitutional rights.”
“We can’t afford to lose again,” said Huerta. “People are trying to take away civil rights. They're trying to create different classes of people in this country, and that's not what this country was founded on.”
Huerta said he believes the Trump administration will try to find ways to discriminate against immigrant communities.
But he also hopes the ruling gives people motivation to continue fighting for their rights.
“People can breathe that sigh of relief that their kids are not in danger of getting their citizenship taken away,” said Huerta. “But we also see a lot of recommitment to fight for their rights, the rights of their children, and the rights of future generations.”
