The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday shut down President Trump’s attempt to reverse a 170-year-old constitutional right that gives American citizenship to babies born to undocumented immigrants.
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court said that children born on American soil to undocumented parents are “‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s citizenship clause.”
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order denying automatic U.S. citizenship to babies unless one parent is either a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident — known as a green card holder — at the time of the baby’s birth. In addition to children of undocumented parents, the executive order excludes automatic U.S. citizenship to babies born to parents who are in the country temporarily, such as people in the country with a student, work or tourist visa.
Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said earlier this year that every new parent would be affected by revoking birthright citizenship.
“It will affect all families, not just immigrant families, because every family will be required to prove their citizenship status or their lawful permanent resident status in the hospital delivery room,” she said.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 250,000 babies were born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S., or 6% of the total births, in 2016, the latest year for which data is available.
The most affected demographic would be Latinos, who make up the majority of undocumented immigrant families, and Asians. Among Asians, parents lack legal status in 41 births per 1,000, while 17 of every 1,000 births among Latinos lack legal status, according to a recent study by two professors at Pennsylvania State University.
In 1868, Congress passed, and voters ratified, the amendment, which begins: “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.”
The Amendment was a reaction to one of the Supreme Court’s most notorious decisions: The 1857 Dred Scott ruling that declared Black people of African descent were not U.S. citizens.
Three decades after the 14th Amendment passed, the court cemented it through its ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, when the justices said a child born in the United States to Chinese immigrants was a U.S. citizen.
Trump has called the practice “stupid,” without explaining why. He has erroneously said the U.S. is the only country to provide birthright citizenship. Analysis by the Pew Research Center found 32 countries — many of them in the Western Hemisphere — have birthright citizenship laws similar to the 14th Amendment.
Only on rare occasions is a baby born in the U.S. not considered a citizen, such as a child born to foreign diplomats.
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