Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s birthright citizenship order

The Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday that children born in the U.S. are automatically citizens, rejecting President Donald Trump’s order denying that right to kids of undocumented or temporary immigrants.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order denying automatic citizenship to children of undocumented or temporary immigrants is unconstitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett in ruling that the order violates the 14th Amendment. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the result, pointing to a federal statute rather than the Constitution.

Roberts cited the 1898 case of Wong Kim Ark, the San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants whose citizenship the court recognized at a time when Asian immigrants themselves could not naturalize. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote. But Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing that the majority recognized “a constitutional right to citizenship for the children of all foreign birth tourists and illegal aliens.”

Asian American lawmakers and civil rights groups welcomed the ruling. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), joined leaders of the Congressional Black and Hispanic caucuses in a statement that stressed, “We are American, we belong here.” John C. Yang, president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, said the court reaffirmed “that children born in this country are citizens of this country.”

Meanwhile, Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, recalled that Wong Kim Ark “was born just blocks from the Asian Law Caucus” and that the ruling continues that fight for “full and equal membership in this country.” Thu Nguyen, executive director of OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, said the decision “rejects a dangerous attempt to undermine the promise of birthright citizenship” for millions of families.

The ruling’s legal basis dates back to an era that shut most Asian immigrants out of U.S. citizenship. As we previously reported, a Penn State study found that when adjusted for population size, Asian Americans would be hit the hardest across all racial groups. Stop AAPI Hate also warned that “hundreds of thousands” of Asian children were projected to be denied citizenship, voting rights and public benefits by 2050 if Trump’s order pushed through.

The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) noted that the ruling preserves “the promise of America for all immigrant families.” Needless to say, it reinforces decades of Asian American legal advocacy that began with Wong Kim Ark’s fight more than a century ago. Still, Legal Defense Fund President Janai Nelson pointed out that some justices sided with Trump’s position to varying degrees, leaving the legal question unresolved.

The ruling in Trump v. Barbara leaves birthright citizenship intact for now, though a related case, OCA v. Rubio, remains pending in lower courts.