The US Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas, AP reported. The decision leaves intact the 14th Amendment, which guarantees US citizenship to nearly everyone born on American soil.
The decision marks a major legal setback for Trump and his immigration agenda during his second term. The executive order, signed on the first day of his return to the White House, had already been blocked by several lower courts and never took effect anywhere in the United States.
The justices ruled that the Constitution, along with long-established federal law, protects birthright citizenship except in a few limited situations, such as children born to foreign diplomats or members of an occupying foreign force, reported AP.
The 14th Amendment states, “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.”
What is birthright citizenship?
Birthright citizenship means a child born in the United States automatically becomes a US citizen, no matter where the parents come from, except in a few rare cases.
This right comes from the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which was added in 1868. It says that people born in the United States are US citizens. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 also follows the same rule and recognises people born in the US as citizens.
Supreme Court’s verdict
The Supreme Court relied on decades of legal precedent while rejecting Trump’s attempt to narrow the meaning of the Citizenship Clause. A key part of the court’s reasoning rested on its landmark 1898 ruling in United States versus Wong Kim Ark. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that a child born in the United States to Chinese parents was a US citizen because the child was born on American soil, reported AP.
The Trump administration said that children born to parents who are not US citizens should not automatically become US citizens because, in its view, they are not fully “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
The Supreme Court did not agree with this argument. During the hearing in April, judges from both the conservative and liberal sides raised doubts about the legality of Trump’s executive order.
The case reached the Supreme Court after Trump challenged a New Hampshire court’s decision that had blocked the order. Before that, several other federal courts had also ruled that the executive order went against the US Constitution and more than 100 years of legal precedent.
What the ruling means for NRIs, Indians
The ruling means children born in the US to Indians and NRIs on H-1B, L-1 and F-1 visas will continue to receive American citizenship at birth.
If implemented, Trump’s executive order would have affected more than 250,000 babies born in the United States every year, according to AP report citing estimates by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.
The restrictions would not have applied only to people living in the country illegally. They would also have covered many people who were legally present in the United States, including international students, temporary workers and individuals applying for permanent residency through green cards.
The birthright citizenship order formed part of Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, making it one of the administration’s most significant constitutional challenges.
The Supreme Court’s decision means the existing rules on birthright citizenship remain unchanged. Children born in the United States will continue to receive American citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status, except in the narrow constitutional exceptions that courts have long recognised.