Michigan immigrant advocates and community members celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject President Donald Trump’s attempt to overhaul birthright citizenship, calling it a huge win that upholds a century-plus guarantee.
It was a blow to a key pillar of the president’s efforts to clamp down on immigration in his second term. The June 30 ruling affirms that children born to parents unlawfully or temporarily in the United States are citizens under the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel — who last year joined attorneys general from other states to challenge an executive order limiting birthright citizenship — said the 6-3 decision is a “monumental victory.”
“Birthright citizenship is at the heart of our American story, ensuring that every person born on U.S. soil is entitled to equal protection under the law,” Nessel said in a statement. “By joining with every court to have ever considered this policy, the Supreme Court has cemented a historic reality: birthright citizenship is a basic right, and no president is above the law.”
The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC), a statewide legal resource group, said the decision was consequential, especially as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
“For the past year, parents across Michigan have lived with the fear that their American-born children could be rendered stateless by executive action,” said Christine Sauvé, policy, engagement and communications manager for the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center in a statement. “This decision brings some relief and ensures that children can begin life on equal footing, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. We know that children thrive when they have the security, stability and opportunities that citizenship provides. … We are strongest when citizenship is secure, equal, and grounded in the Constitution — not subject to political whim.”
‘These rights are protected’
For Pamela Beltran, the Supreme Court’s decision was personal.
She was born and raised in southwest Detroit to immigrants from Mexico and recalled the privileges she grew up with as someone with birthright citizenship. The opportunities were “vastly different.” While her older sister struggled to get scholarships and worked multiple jobs to pay for college, Beltran was able to get a full ride. Her parents ended up being business owners because they couldn’t find jobs.
“I didn’t understand where that privilege came from,” Beltran, 25, said. “It didn’t make sense to me, but I knew that there was a difference and I knew that I had privileges that my family didn’t.”
She was glad to hear about Tuesday’s ruling.
“These rights are protected by the Constitution and they shouldn’t have to be constantly tested or won over and over again. They should just be upheld and I think that this is a good start,” Beltran, a youth development advocate, said.
Alyssa Avila, who works at Detroit-based youth community development organization Urban Neighborhoods Initiatives, said the issue is near to her work given the young people she works with are primarily birthright citizens coming from immigrant households.
Avila said the mood in the community has been fear and uncertainty through Trump’s second term, but that this decision is a bright spot because it upholds something she says is core to the nation’s values.
“That each person who was born here is American,” she said. “That’s something that’s integral to who we are and is something that makes America powerful.”
President doesn’t get ‘blank check’
The high court’s ruling rejects Trump’s executive order to restrict birthright citizenship.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ We keep that promise today,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in an opinion for the majority.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.
The Supreme Court’s decision is significant for a number of reasons, said Sam Erman, law professor and birthright citizenship historian at the University of Michigan Law School.
It reaffirms what has been an essentially unbroken rule, core to the country’s founding codified in the constitution through the 14th Amendment citizenship clause, which meant anyone born here, with few exceptions, is a citizen of this nation, Erman said.
“This distinguishes us from places that have internal castes or permanent nonmembers,” he said. “There are many parts of the world that don’t have birthright citizenship. You can be born somewhere and live your whole life there and not get to be a full member of that society.”
The decision puts to rest what had been a growing political debate over the last few decades spearheaded by conservative activists to redefine the long-held understanding of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, said Erman.
More broadly, it “suggests the court is not yet giving the president a blank check,” he said.
USA TODAY reporter Maureen Groppe contributed to this report.
Reach reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.
You can have open borders or you can have a nanny state but you can’t have both! Additionally, the US has the 2nd highest paying social benefits (behind France) and the most progressive tax system in the world (the rich already pay more than their fair share). Why are politicians so ignorant of economics? The laws of economics are immutable.