U.S. Supreme Court rules against Trump executive order on birthright citizenship

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, in a highly anticipated decision that confirms a lower court finding.

Trump’s executive order, not retroactive, would have denied citizenship to those born to parents who are in the U.S. without authorization, or whose presence is lawful but temporary, such as being in the country on a work or student visa.

The 14th Amendment, enacted in the 19th century and supported by subsequent legislation, has essentially guaranteed citizenship ​for babies born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions such as the children of foreign diplomats or an enemy occupying force.

Going forward, critics of the order argued, it had the potential to impact, on average, a quarter of a million children born in the U.S. each year. In one of several so-called “friend of the court” briefs, a group of municipal and local officials argued that the Trump order would create “stateless” children subject to stigma and discrimination, whose access to basic services and health care would be compromised.

While many countries do not guarantee citizenship by birth, including Britain and Australia, the push from the Trump administration comes as it’s clamped down on legal immigration and denied nearly all asylum claims, aside from white applicants from South Africa, a country in which Blacks are overrepresented under the poverty line, following decades of racial segregation.

As well, the administration has undertaken an expansive deportation campaign compared to previous Democratic and Republican presidential administrations, with the Supreme Court last year in an unsigned order making it less challenging for the government to send deportees to countries not of their origin.

The Census Bureau has reported that U.S. population growth last year was at one of its lowest levels in recent memory, aside from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, owing largely due to a historic decline in net international migration.