Supreme Court Hears Challenge to Birthright Citizenship for Children of Non-Citizens

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in April in Trump v. Barbara, a case that challenges the scope of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. President Trump issued an executive order on the first day of his second term that aimed to curtail automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.

The order was immediately challenged in court, and the justices are expected to announce a decision soon. , a U.S. citizen, traveled from Boston to Cancún, Mexico, a few weeks before her due date and gave birth to her son Kal there in 2023.

Kal holds both U.S. and Mexican citizenship. She said the move was intended to provide her son with expanded educational and professional options and to access what she viewed as better medical care.

“The biggest blessing to dual nationality is the freedom it grants you,” she said. N. Olvera, a Mexican citizen, entered the United States on a tourist visa a few weeks before her son Franco was born in 2020.

Franco also holds dual citizenship. She said the decision followed her and her husband’s experience of being unable to accept U.S. job or graduate-school offers due to citizenship restrictions. She paid medical bills in advance and has not returned to the United States since the birth.

Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued before the court that birth tourism poses a national security concern in an era when “8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who’s a U.S. ” Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the Constitution remains unchanged despite new circumstances.

In 2023, about 9 percent of the estimated 3.6 million U.S. births, or 320,000, were to individuals without authorization or with temporary legal status, according to csmonitor.com reported data. Birth tourism accounted for an estimated 9,000 of those births.