US Catholic bishops have appealed to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to overturn President Donald Trump’s ‘immoral’ executive order on birthright citizenship to ‘protect God-given human dignity.’ In an amicus brief submitted to SCOTUS, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote, “The intended and unintended effects of the Executive Order are immoral and contrary to the Catholic Church’s fundamental beliefs and teachings regarding the life and dignity of human persons, the treatment of vulnerable people—particularly migrants and children—and family unity.”
Trump’s Executive Order 14,160 purports to deny citizenship to children whose mother is “unlawfully present” or has “temporary” status, and whose father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship could potentially alter the eligibility of newborns in the United States for U.S. citizenship, which is currently available to all American-born newborns.
President Trump’s executive order excludes children of parents who are illegally present or hold temporary U.S. visas, such as H-1B or F-1 visa holders. The executive order restricts birthright citizenship only to children with at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident parent.
The arguments against Trump’s Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship rest on three major points:
To dismantle the principle of Birthright Citizenship would undermine both the legal and moral foundations of American society
Birthright Citizenship is consistent with the Church’s fundamental teaching regarding every human person’s inherent dignity, and
Birthright Citizenship is consistent with the Catholic teaching of subsidiarity.
The submission, therefore, states that Birthright citizenship is consonant with this view. By recognizing citizenship at the place of someone’s birth, the state justly acknowledges that a child is already embedded in a community—family, neighborhood, parish, and school—and empowers the child to participate in that community.
Amici urges the Court to reject the Executive Order and uphold the enduring constitutional and moral commitment to equal dignity for all persons born in the United States. Ending birthright citizenship lacks historical, legal, and moral support. The principle of citizenship by birth is firmly rooted in Western legal tradition, enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment, and reaffirmed by this Court’s precedent.
The bishops are appealing ahead of the Supreme Court’s upcoming oral arguments over the administration’s proposed limits on citizenship rights.