In a historic ruling, the US Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down a Trump administration executive order targeting birthright citizenship, preserving a defining principle of what it means to be born an American.
The court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara, holding that children born in the United States to undocumented parents or parents on temporary visas are entitled to US citizenship.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “We keep that promise today.”
While much of the birthright citizenship rhetoric has been about unlawful immigration, the Trump administration’s order actually targeted those who are lawfully present in the US and on the path to permanent legal status.
This included people on highly skilled work visas such as an H-1B or L-1, as well as dependent visas, student visas, temporary labour visas and achievement visas, which are all considered “lawful but temporary” by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
