The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Constitution upholds birthright citizenship.
The court voted 6-3 on the ruling and leaned on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause that children born in the U.S. are automatically citizens regardless of if their parents are undocumented or do not have legal status or citizenship.
Immigration advocates across New York widely celebrated the ruling. Juana Cortes de Torres, Director of the Immigrant Legal Rights Project at Rural & Migrant Ministry, says the decision “brings a sense of stability for families.”
“[Families] have expressed relief – relief in knowing that their children, there will be no question that they’re a part of American society,” said Cortes de Torres, whose nonprofit advocates for rural an immigrant families, farmworkers, and children across New York state.
President Donald Trump has long pushed to end birthright citizenship in the United States. Trump passed an executive order on January 20, 2025, his first day in office of his second term banning birthright citizenship. Trump argued that the Fourteenth Amendment was never meant to extend citizenship to everyone born within the U.S. but that the provision was only to apply to former enslaved people.
Cortes de Torres said that Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship brought more division, confusion, and anxiety to Americans.
“Immigration should never be political, and that is what it has become. It has become entangled in politics when at the end of the day, what we say and what we do [comes] from the Declaration of Independence that gave us our natural inalienable rights to now.. this is, for me, it’s a very profound decision,” said Cortes de Torres.
Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), called the SCOTUS decision “a victory” for the Constitution and the families who have built their lives in the United States.
“As our nation marks its 250th birthday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed what has been clear for more than 150 years: the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, and no president can rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen,” said Awawdeh in a press statement.
While NYIC celebrates Tuesday’s decision protecting the country’s Constitutional guarantees, Awawdeh adds not to forget the Supreme Court’s decision to end legal protections for TPS holders from Haiti and Syria.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3 on June 25 that the Trump administration can begin deporting migrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Haiti and Syria.
“Even as we breathe a sigh of relief, Congress must act to create a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants and strengthen the humanitarian protections that reflect our values,” said Awawdeh.
Cortes de Torres of Rural & Migrant Ministry said the latest SCOTUS ruling offers both relief and evidence that America’s immigration system is still in flux. “We will have to continue to really analyze and look to see what remedies exist for the many hundreds of people who are here within our borders, and that’s a heavy lift.”
Image: Hannah Liu, 26, of Washington, holds up a sign in support of birthright citizenship, May 15, 2025, outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)