WASHINGTON — Many Chicago advocates and immigrant families say they are “excited “ and “relieved” the Supreme Court has upheld a broad definition of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Donald Trump’s executive order that had declared children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
In the 6-3 ruling, 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 were spelled out in an executive order he signed last year on the first day of his second term. It 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 boy 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 in Spanish. “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.”
Trump’s birthright citizenship order was part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.
The 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.
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.
Danae Kovac, executive director of the HANA Center, an immigrant justice organization, said the Supreme Court’s ruling drew “mixed feelings.”
Kovac said the decision comes amid other Supreme Court rulings that have “continued attacks on immigrants,” including ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians.
“It’s one win in a sea of continued targeting,” said Kovac. “This whole challenge has shown that the current administration really believes there are no limits to what…they will pursue against immigrants and against anyone that they view is different.”
Ed Yohnka, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Illinois, said if the executive order had been upheld, the result would have been “chaos,” because no one knew how it would be implemented or applied.
The ACLU was among the groups that challenged the order in court. Yohnka also framed the case as part of a broader fight over democracy in the United States.
“This case has been part of a larger attack by the administration on a diverse, inclusive democracy,” he said.
Kovac said the court’s decision also reaffirmed people’s rights despite what she described as the administration’s attempts to define who is considered “American.”
“We have to continue to raise our voices and to clearly declare that we too are Americans and we too belong here,” she said. “That the strength of America [that] comes from its diversity, comes from our solidarity with one another.”
In a statement Gov. JB Pritzker called the ruling an “important victory” but said Illinois would remain active and “vigilant in standing up for the Constitution, defending the rights it guarantees to every person, and upholding the principles that have long defined our nation.”
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.
For Gloria, the new mom, today’s ruling means her baby boy “won’t have to suffer,” she said. “And he’ll also have a better future.”