SALDEF Responds to Executive Order Undermining Birthright Citizenship
WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier this year, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) that would restrict birthright citizenship based on the documentation status of a child’s parents, but the EO was challenged and temporarily blocked by lower courts. In Trump v. Casa, the Supreme Court did not rule on the legality of changing the birthright citizenship rules, but ended the ability of federal district judges to freeze unlawful executive policies nationwide–allowing the White House to proceed, in some parts of the country, toward an unprecedented narrowing of the definition of precisely who is an American.
President Trump’s executive order (EO) aimed at ending birthright citizenship attempts to change the application of the 14th Amendment; something that no president has ever attempted. The EO targets not just the children of parents who are undocumented but also the children of those with an array of legal, non-permanent statuses such as H-1B visas or Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This sweeping change would erode a foundational principle of American identity–that all people born here are afforded the full rights and protections of the Constitution–and is dangerous for all immigrant communities, including Sikh Americans.
“We will always stand for the rights enshrined in the 14th Amendment and support a unified, humane immigration system that does not vary from state to state,” said Kiran Kaur Gill, Executive Director of SALDEF. “We look forward to the Supreme Court ultimately ruling on the merits that this threat to the promise of equality, a bedrock principle of our democracy, is blatantly unconstitutional.”