A U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week could enable a Trump executive order restricting birthright citizenship. It could change who is considered a U.S. citizen, depending on what state a child is born in and their parents' immigration status. It’s adding new pressure on immigrant families, especially those on temporary visas.
“What the Supreme Court said was, 'we don't like to use our power or lower district courts shouldn't use that power,'" Charlotte immigration attorney Andres Lopez said. "They basically cut off the amount of power they have and they ceded the power to the executive to do something that they want to do, even if it's wrong.”
The executive order aims to deny citizenship to children born in the United States whose parents are undocumented or on temporary visas.
Under the new ruling from the Supreme Court, legal protections now vary by state, and lower courts cannot issue nationwide injunctions, giving the executive branch more power. This new ruling means the executive order could take effect in states that haven’t joined lawsuits to block it.
“North Carolina has already joined the lawsuit challenging the order, so any babies born in North Carolina are still protected by the lawsuit, so they would still be able to assert their citizenship rights under the 14th Amendment," Lopez said. "But anybody who is born in South Carolina may be denied their citizenship rights.”
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According to the Migration Policy Institute, over 200,000 children are born nationwide each year to non-birthright immigrant parents, meaning by 2045, there will be close to three million children born in the U.S. as undocumented if birthright citizenship is stripped away.
The uncertainty has left many immigrant parents with questions about their children’s and future children’s future. Ferdinand Francis moved from India in 2010. He works at a tech company in Charlotte and is on a work visa with his wife and two children.
“I was shocked to see somebody, you know, amending their law when the law was clearly stated as whoever was born on American soil is actually a U.S. citizen,” Francis said.
Francis’s daughter was born in the U.S. and is a citizen. But his wife and son, like many other immigrants, are still on visas with no clear path to citizenship, and the uncertainty is growing.
“The emotional and the legal stress that comes with that every three years, even though we are rooted here in terms of buying a house," Francis said.
Francis says many of his friends in Charlotte, also visa holders, are worried too.
“People who are newly married came to the U.S. planning to settle down," Francis said. "For them, I heard there are a lot of conversations around this.”
Charlotte is home to thousands of tech workers and other professionals on work visas, which are not permanent, even though people can stay on them for many years. Their children born in the U.S. might not be considered citizens if the Trump administration's order takes effect. For now, the Supreme Court still hasn't decided whether the Constitution allows birthright citizenship to be amended.
“We have to also understand that the lawsuit on Friday does not mean that the law has been overturned," Lopez said. "The birthright citizenship question has not been determined by the Supreme Court. That still has yet to be decided.”
Lopez cautions immigrant parents not to panic just yet. For now, birthright citizenship remains intact in North Carolina, but the future depends on the outcome of legal challenges, which means thousands of families could be in limbo for years to come.
