Caribbean immigration advocates and legislators Tuesday welcomed a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) upholding birthright citizenship for Caribbean and other immigrants.
In a 6-3 decision, SCOTUS rejected US President Donald Trump’s attempt to strip birthright citizenship from children born in the US through a 2025 Executive Order. A majority of the justices reaffirmed the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee that citizenship is determined by birth on US soil, not by the immigration status of a child’s parents.
The 14th Amendment states: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’
Trump’s executive order sought to prohibit children born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents from automatically becoming US citizens.
‘Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights, to freely participate in our political community,’ said Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., writing for the majority, ‘The framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’
‘We keep that promise today,’ he added.
President and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), Murad Awawdeh, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the court’s decision is ‘a significant rebuke of the administration’s effort to redefine who belongs in the United States and preserves a Constitutional protection that has been settled law for more than 150 years.
‘Today’s Supreme Court decision is a victory for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the generations of families who have built their lives in this country,’ he said.
‘As our nation marks its 250th birthday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed what has been clear for more than 150 years: the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship, and no president can rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen.’
Awawdeh said that Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship was both an unprecedented attempt to advance his anti-immigrant agenda and part of a broader effort to dismantle legal pathways to safety, stability, and belonging.
But he said, while immigrants celebrate SCOTUS’s reaffirmation of one of the nation’s most enduring Constitutional guarantees, ‘we must not forget that just last week the court’s decisions on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and asylum at the border have left hundreds of thousands of families facing uncertainty and have given the administration an undue authority to dismantle humanitarian protections that allow people fleeing violence, disaster and uncertainty to live and work lawfully in the United States.
The deputy director of the immigration group, Make the Road New York,
Yaritza Mendez, told CMC that the court’s ruling ‘reaffirms a central tenet of American democracy: that every child born in this country has the right to citizenship, no matter who their parents are, where they come from, or the colour of their skin.
‘No president has the power to single-handedly rewrite the Constitution. This decision rejects the administration’s attempts to redefine citizenship and is a victory for immigrant families across the United States. No child should have to wonder whether they belong in the country where they were born.
‘Birthright citizenship is not just an issue for immigrant communities; it is one of the bedrocks of our society. The 14th Amendment, establishing birthright citizenship, was won by Black Americans and enacted out of the horrors of slavery to ensure that newly-freed slaves, and their children, were treated equally under the law.’
She said that, for generations, birthright citizenship has prevented the government from denying a person the rights that come with citizenship.
The San Diego, California-based Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) said the court’s decision ‘reaffirms the enduring promise of the 14th Amendment.
‘Today’s decision is a victory for the Constitution, the rule of law, and the millions of immigrant families who have long relied on the protections of the 14th Amendment,’ Executive Director Guerline Jozef told CMC.
‘No president has the power to erase constitutional rights or decide which children are worthy of American citizenship. We commend the Court for upholding one of our nation’s most fundamental constitutional guarantees and reaffirming that the Constitution cannot be rewritten by executive order,’ she said.
But she noted that it does not protect families of mixed status from the cruelty of family separation based on Mullin v. Doe Supreme Court ruling that allows President Trump and his administration to remove TPS for Haitians, Syrians and over 1.3 million Temporary Protected Status holders from 17 countries.
Jozef said HBA ‘remains committed to defending the constitutional rights of all immigrant communities and will continue advocating for permanent legislative protections that keep families together and uphold equal justice under the law.’
Caribbean-American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who chairs the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), told CMC that she is delighted with the ruling.
‘As it has been since 1868, and as it will remain in permanent glory, birthright citizenship is the law of our land. Today, the Supreme Court affirmed an obvious truth in this nation: that a child of any refugee is as equally American as any descendant of the Revolution, with the same rights, opportunities, and possibilities afforded to them.
Clarke, the representative for the predominantly Caribbean 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, said that with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States only days away, ‘how fitting it is that our sestercentennial celebration should coincide with this monumental victory for a fundamental American institution.
‘Despite today’s ruling, and despite the unambiguity of the promise of birthright citizenship, we must understand this battle to protect birthright citizenship is ongoing. While a moral president would accept this result, or more accurately, would never have escalated his despicable, nonsensical challenge to this point, I have little expectation that he or his administration will receive their defeat with anything but vengeance,’ Clarke said.
In a joint statement, the chairs of the Congressional Tri-Caucus in New York welcomed Tuesday’s ruling.
‘Today’s decision affirms a fundamental constitutional principle that has defined our nation for generations: every child born in the United States is a citizen of the United States. This promise was established by the 14th Amendment, affirmed by the Supreme Court in the 1898 case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, and codified into federal law.
‘While President Trump believes he is above the law, today’s ruling serves as a reminder that he cannot override the Constitution or deny people the rights it guarantees with a stroke of a pen His effort to end birthright citizenship and redefine who gets to be an American has failed.
‘As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, we stand united in rejecting Trump’s dangerous and exclusionary vision of America,’ the chairs continued. ‘We are American, we belong here, and we will continue to defend birthright citizenship for generations to come,’ the chairs of the Congressional Tri-Caucus said.
Democratic Leader of the US House of Representatives Hakeem Jeffries said that SCOTUS ‘finally affirmed, by applying the law and being guided by the Constitution, that all persons born in the United States are American citizens.
‘There is, and shall be, no question,’ said Jeffries, whose 8th Congressional District in New York comprises heavy concentrations of Caribbean immigrants in Brooklyn and Queens. ‘Donald Trump’s disgraceful actions as it relates to the Birthright Citizenship Clause are clearly unlawful and an assault on our way of life.
‘The 14th Amendment was enshrined in our Constitution during Reconstruction to ensure that formerly enslaved Black people would not have their citizenship questioned on the basis of their race,’ he added. ‘More than 150 years later, it has withstood the unconstitutional attack launched by Donald Trump and his most sycophantic and xenophobic enablers.
‘On the eve of America’s 250th birthday, the far-right MAGA conservatives have failed in their quest to remake the United States, and American values have prevailed,’ Jeffries said, adding ‘House Democrats will never let these extremists win, and we will always defend our defining values of freedom and democracy.’
New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani said that Tuesday’s US Supreme Court ruling ‘affirms a promise that was written into our Constitution more than 150 years ago: if you are born on American soil, you are an American citizen, no matter the color of your skin, where your parents were born, how you worship, or the language you speak at home.
‘This should never have been in doubt. The federal administration sought to rewrite one of the clearest guarantees in our Constitution in an effort to decide who belongs in this country and who does not. Today, the Court rejected that effort.’
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has strenuously defended birthright citizenship, reaffirmed that it is ‘a constitutional guarantee that has defined this nation for generations.
‘Our country was built by immigrants, and we draw our strength from those who come here seeking a better life,’ she said. ‘Today’s ruling preserves that promise for generations to come.
”I am relieved for the children who will never know how close the American dream came to being taken from them, and for the families who will never have to explain to a child why the country they were born in refuses to accept them,’ James added.