The US Supreme Court has rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that children born on American soil to parents living in the country illegally or on temporary visas are entitled to US citizenship under the Constitution.
In a 6-3 decision delivered on Tuesday, the court upheld the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, bringing a major setback to one of Trump’s key immigration policies.
Trump had signed an executive order on the first day of his second term seeking to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented migrants and parents on temporary visas.
However, lower courts blocked the order, prompting the case to reach the nation’s highest court.
Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts reaffirmed that the Constitution guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born in the United States.
“Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause,” Roberts wrote.
The Trump administration had argued that the constitutional provision was originally intended to protect the citizenship rights of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War and should not apply to children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors.
It also claimed that unrestricted birthright citizenship encourages illegal immigration and so-called “birth tourism,” where foreigners travel to the United States to give birth.
The Supreme Court, however, relied on its landmark 1898 Wong Kim Ark ruling, which established that nearly everyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
The decision marks another significant legal setback for Trump after the Supreme Court previously blocked key parts of his tariff policy and his attempt to remove a Federal Reserve governor.
Source: AFP
