Birthright Citizenship at the Supreme Court: Who Could Be Affected by Trump’s Order?

On the same day he returned to the White House in 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would severely limit birthright citizenship in the United States.

This week, a lawsuit challenging this policy has reached the Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the justices will hear arguments in Trump v. Barbara and decide if the president’s order — which would deny American citizenship to babies born in the country to parents who aren’t U.S. citizens or permanent legal residents— is in line with the Constitution.

What’s at stake in Trump v. Barbara

Several lower courts have already ruled against the Trump administration and blocked the executive order from being enforced in the last 14 months. If the Supreme Court strikes down the order, that would confirm the longstanding interpretation of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Jump straight to: 

• Could Trump’s executive order revoke anyone’s American citizenship?
• I’m having a baby soon. Could my family be affected?

The White House, however, argues that unless a child has a parent who’s a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, they should not be a U.S. citizen by birth.

If both parents are immigrants with no permanent legal status — a category that includes parents with no immigration documents, but also those with a student visa or temporary work permit — Trump’s executive order would deny those children U.S. citizenship at birth.

In 2023, around 300,000 babies were born to undocumented parents, according to the Pew Research Center. According to Trump’s order, these babies are “not subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. government and therefore do not qualify for citizenship. But the federal government has not provided clear information on what legal status would be provided to children born in this situation.

“Our community members would be stateless,” said Roslyne Shiao, co-executive director for AAPI New Jersey, an advocacy group for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that has also organized a rally at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in defense of birthright citizenship.

The court is expected to deliver its ruling sometime between June and July. As the country waits for this decision, KQED will be responding to questions from audience members about what’s at stake in this legal battle and what families need to know about the potential impacts of this Supreme Court ruling.

What does Trump’s birthright citizenship order say?

On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order declaring that the federal government would no longer grant documents that confirm citizenship, like a Social Security Number or passport, to children born on or after Feb. 19, 2025, who are in the following situations:

• At the time of birth, the baby’s biological mother was “unlawfully present” (with no legal status) in the U.S., and the biological father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
• At the time of birth, the baby’s biological mother was in the U.S. with a temporary visa or permit, and the biological father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

The text of the executive order, while written in legal language that is often opaque to the general public, suggests that the following families could be affected by Trump’s order:

• Families where both parents have no legal immigration documents at the time of their baby’s birth
• Families where both parents only have a temporary legal status, which could include: Temporary Protected Status (TPS), Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), H1-B holders, a student J-1 visa or an H-2A visa for agricultural workers, another temporary visa or humanitarian parole
• If one parent has no legal status and the other only has a temporary legal status, which could include: TPS, DACA, H1-B holders, a student J-1 visa or an H-2A visa for agricultural workers, another temporary visa or humanitarian parole.

If the executive order is allowed to take effect, babies born to families in the above situations would not have birthright citizenship.

Is the federal government enforcing this order right now?

No. The Trump administration currently cannot enforce the executive order due to a nationwide injunction issued last summer by a federal judge in New Hampshire.

The order remains frozen until the Supreme Court makes a final decision over its legality. In the meantime, U.S. citizenship is still guaranteed to babies born to immigrant parents without permanent legal status.

Who is behind Trump v. Barbara?

From the moment that Trump signed his executive order in 2025, different groups have sought to stop this policy in the courtroom.

Twenty-two states — including California — announced a lawsuit the day after, and soon were able to obtain multiple nationwide injunctions from federal district judges. However, the Supreme Court overturned these injunctions last summer and ruled that lower courts had exceeded their authority.

But the court still allows for nationwide injunctions in class-action cases. So in response, a coalition of civil rights groups presented the class-action Trump v. Barbara on behalf of newborn babies affected by the executive order.

One of those groups is the San Francisco-based Asian Law Caucus, whose legal team is arguing that the question of birthright citizenship was established a long time ago — 128 years ago, specifically, in the landmark case United States v. Wong Kim Ark.

Born in San Francisco in the 1870s to Chinese immigrants, Wong Kim Ark sued the federal government when he was denied reentry into the U.S. after a trip to China.

Officials said that Wong was not a U.S. citizen but rather a Chinese national: a population that at the time was restricted from entering the country.

Wong’s case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where the federal government asserted that Wong could not be a citizen because his parents were not under the jurisdiction of the U.S. government at the time of his birth — a very similar claim to the one the Trump administration has used to defend its executive order.

The justices did not accept this argument and sided with Wong in 1898. In its ruling, the court declared that the Fourteenth Amendment — initially written to defend the rights of formerly enslaved African Americans and their children — also “includes the children born within the territory of the United States of all other persons, of whatever race or color.”

This legal battle is about defending the legacy of Wong Kim Ark and the Bay Area’s Chinese-American community that stood by him, said Winnie Kao, senior counsel for Asian Law Caucus.

“In the 120-plus years since, the decision has been understood to affirm that U.S.-born children are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status,” Kao said. “All three branches of government — Republican and Democratic — have relied upon that understanding since.”

Would Trump’s executive order take away anyone’s American citizenship?

Trump’s executive order said nothing about rescinding the citizenship of people born in the U.S. before Feb. 19, 2025, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.

I’m worried: Is my newborn baby still a U.S. citizen?

Trump’s executive order is still blocked nationwide as the Supreme Court makes a final decision, which isn’t expected until late June or early July.

At this moment, if your baby was born on or after Feb. 19, 2025, the federal government will still recognize them as a U.S. citizen, regardless of your own immigration status or what state the child was born in.

If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the Trump administration, what will happen to babies excluded from U.S. citizenship?

This remains unclear. The White House did not directly answer KQED’s question regarding what legal status would be available for affected babies if the Supreme Court rules in its favor.

Instead, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson wrote in an email to KQED that “[t]he Supreme Court has the opportunity to review the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and restore the meaning of citizenship in the United States to its original public meaning.”

Officials also did not provide information on how children excluded from U.S. citizenship at birth would be able to attain this status in the future.

“Birthright citizenship is this really powerful idea that if you’re born in this country, you belong,” said Asian Law Caucus’s Kao. “You start as a full member of this democracy, regardless of your parents’ status or circumstances.”

While some children could seek the citizenship of their parents’ home countries, that’s not guaranteed. Some nations — like Mexico or Brazil — do make it possible for parents to register their baby for citizenship at a consulate in the U.S.

But other nations, including China, prevent someone from seeking that country’s citizenship if that person lives elsewhere. And traveling abroad would be almost impossible for U.S.-born babies affected by the order, as they would lack a passport from any country.

I’m currently expecting a baby, and my family could be affected by this executive order. Should I do anything to prepare?

Some legal scholars told KQED that they’d be surprised if the Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration. One major reason they point out: every lower-ranking judge involved in this legal battle has said that the executive order goes against established law.

Just three days after Trump signed the executive order in January 2025, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour blocked the policy. “I have been on the bench for over four decades,” Coughenour said. “I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.”

However, the possibility still exists that the conservative-leaning Supreme Court could hand Trump an unexpected victory and overturn historical precedent — as happened in 2022 when the justices struck down Roe. v Wade.

Kao from Asian Law Caucus said that even if the Supreme Court upholds the executive order, families could nonetheless anticipate an “implementation period” before the order took effect.

But to anyone expecting a baby very soon, Kao said, talk with an immigration lawyer as soon as possible. “Get a passport [for the baby] immediately,” she said. “Don’t sit and wait.”