Chicago advocates, immigrant families feel “relieved” as Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON (AP) —Many Chicago advocates and immigrant families say they are “excited “ and “relieved" the Supreme Court has upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.

The justices relied on a long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and more recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

The Republican president's restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts and had not taken effect anywhere in the U.S.

“I’m glad it stays,” said Gloria, who delivered a baby girl in Chicago three weeks ago. The Sun-Times is not using her last name because she is applying for asylum and fears deportation.

She’d been worried about what the court would decide.

“I feel calmer now,” she said. “Because people kept saying, ‘No, it’s impossible, don’t even worry about that.’ But with this president, you never know.”

While she’s calmer now, not all of her concerns have gone away. She still worries about immigration enforcement. Her husband is the family’s only source of income and she fears he’ll be taken away. “They don’t look at whether you have a record or not,” she said. “They just grab people.”

The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.

Trump’s order would have upended widely held views that the 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

The amendment was intended to ensure that Black people, including former slaves, had citizenship, though the Citizenship Clause is written more broadly. “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,” it reads.

In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down Trump's executive order as illegal. The decisions have invoked the high court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

The Trump administration argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

And some immigrant advocates in Chicago say they still worry about what’s next for immigrant communities.

“While we’re relieved that the [Supreme] Court upheld birthright citizenship, we can’t overlook all the other decisions written by MAGA aligned justices that have chipped away at our rights and freedoms," said Brandon Lee, spokesperson for the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

While Trump has largely focused on illegal immigration in his rhetoric and actions, the birthright citizenship restrictions also would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

Gloria, the new mom, today’s ruling means her baby daughter “ won’t have to suffer," she said. “And she’ll also have a better future.”