‘My Child is Now a Political Debate’: Immigrant Families Respond as Arguments Wrap in Landmark Challenge against Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Threats

This story has been updated to reflect the recent thoughts and feelings of families affected by Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in April.

*Some names have been changed to protect identities.

When Jane* learned about President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, she immediately panicked. The order was slated to take effect July 27. Jane’s first child was due just 10 days later.

Jane was filled with desperation and confusion. She wanted her son to be protected and to have the constitutional rights guaranteed to someone born in the U.S. She just wanted to do whatever was best for him. Fueled by fear, she went so far as to ask her doctor if she could be induced early so that her son would be born before July 27. Her doctor advised against it.

“I started considering all the options,” Jane said. “I went as far as considering: Can we get the baby to come sooner than he should, just so that he could be a citizen?”

Parents have been faced with fear and uncertainty since Trump signed the executive order on his first day in office — all while navigating being new parents. The ACLU and partners sued in January, taking swift action to block Trump’s cruel and lawless attempt to deny babies their constitutional rights. A complex legal battle followed. The Trump administration took several other challenges by states and other groups to the Supreme Court, asking it to limit lower courts’ ability to block his unlawful executive order using universal injunctions. The Supreme Court ruled in Trump’s favor, but families like Jane’s stood with the ACLU and our partners in immediately filing a second lawsuit, this time a class action, Barbara v. Trump. The court then certified tens of thousands of U.S.-born babies as a class and blocked the executive order from impacting this class while the case proceeded.

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in the Barbara case on April 1. The ACLU and our partners presented arguments exposing the flaws in the administration’s efforts to dismantle birthright citizenship — highlighting how Trump’s executive order flouts the Constitution’s dictates, longstanding Supreme Court precedent, a statute passed by Congress, and fundamental American values. A Supreme Court decision is expected by the end of June or early July. In the meantime, courts have uniformly blocked the Trump administration from implementing the executive order.

As Jane awaited oral argument and a decision, she reflected on how the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict constitutional rights turned what should have been the happiest moments into a time of stress and uncertainty.

“After so many years of living by this visa, this expiration, renewal, and guidelines in order to maintain lawful status throughout my time in the United States,” Jane said. “It truly feels like a reward for my son, that he’s not going to have to deal with anything that we ever dealt with: the uncertainty, the huge commitment, time, money, and effort.”

A few months after giving birth, Jane is adjusting to motherhood. She’s learning how to take care of her baby’s eczema and navigating some potential food allergies. But she now has hope. She’s found it in the fact that her son now has a passport, which is only issued to citizens. Her son even stayed still for his photo. Jane is also approaching 10 years of living in the U.S. Her family recently applied for their green card. Still, she is concerned about the thousands of families who will face uncertainty if the court upholds Trump’s executive order.

“I truly empathize for all the parents and moms-to-be that have to deal with this sort of stress,” Jane said. “It’s the last thing you want during pregnancy.”

Andrew* is a father of two who faced the same uncertainty around the birth of his daughter. She’s now 7 months old and has learned to sit up on her own.

“I remember I read the 14th Amendment and thought: if you’re born here, you’re a citizen,” Andrew says. “When the executive order came out, I thought it was just a political move.”

As oral arguments began in Trump v. Barbara, Andrew said he worried that nine Supreme Court justices held the fate of such a strong constitutional protection in their hands. “Whenever I think about it, my heart starts pounding,” Andrew said. “And it’s not my right, I’m not a citizen,” he said. “But my heart starts pounding because it is my 7-month-old child.”

When Andrew first came to the U.S., President Trump’s narrative was aimed at immigrants without legal status. Andrew didn’t worry for his family because he and his wife are here lawfully, albeit on a temporary status. But when the executive order targeted families with status as well, and the Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a procedural win, he realized that lawful status may not be enough to protect them. His daughter was still in danger.

Before Andrew’s daughter was born, he was concerned mostly about her ability to be a citizen. But now, Andrew is seeing how his baby is developing a personality, and he’s thinking more about whether she may have trouble feeling like she belongs when she grows up.

“I hope that she feels safe in this country,” Andrew said. “I’m thinking about whether she can speak freely in this country, whether she can talk about her identity freely, whether she can talk about her parents not being citizens. That she can do what she really wants to in terms of her career and education.’”

Like his daughter, Andrew’s siblings also have birthright citizenship. They have been free to leave the U.S. when they wanted and to seek out various employment opportunities, without ever having to think about contingency plans. The contrast between his experience and his siblings’ has shown him the importance of his daughter being a citizen. Andrew hopes that his daughter won’t have to face the same barriers he did as an international student. Sometimes that included being held for extra time at airport security or stressing about visa interviews. For Andrew, this fight is not only legal, but deeply personal.

“It makes me sad that this harms babies because they don’t have a voice yet, they don’t have legal resources,” he says. But Andrew is determined, and he wants his daughter to know that her rights are worth defending. “As a parent I am always going to protect my child.”

“My child is now a political debate,” Andrew says. “In 10 years, if she loses citizenship, she will know that despite the consequences, a lot of people fought for her.”

Andrew also wants his daughter to know: “Citizenship is great because that’s your right,” but he added, “I want her to understand that it doesn’t end there. It’s right for you to give back to the country as well.

Andrew and his wife had plans to have more children, but the current political landscape has made them reconsider. “It changes the whole dynamic around planning to have a child when this is such a huge political issue,” he said. “You’re not as joyful when you have to worry about all these things.”

For others, months of fear around birthright citizenship has sowed similar feelings of doubt and hopelessness. When Thomas* and his wife arrived in the U.S. six years ago, he saw America as a land of hope, possibility and community. They were thrilled to reunite with their U.S.-citizen father, who had lived in the country for decades, and build their family.

Now, Thomas is preparing to leave the U.S. with his newborn son.

“It’s sad — I feel like I don’t really have a choice,” he says. “I would like my baby to grow up in the country where he was born, experiencing the good the U.S. has to offer. But right now, I can barely see those good things anymore.”

Thomas’s son was born in the shadow of Trump’s executive order. Thomas has feared for his son since before he was born, worried that Trump would find a way to override the 14th Amendment and further terrorize his family.

“The Constitution says my son has the same rights as every American born here. It shouldn’t matter who his parents are,” he says. “He deserves the same life as other American kids.”

Thomas fears being “disappeared” by ICE and separated from his family. Simple routines — going to work, buying groceries — now carry risk. “Since police have been working with ICE, I don’t feel safe when I see a police car,” he says. “I feel like I’m in a place that’s not safe, and that’s the opposite of how I felt when I first came here.”

The decision to leave has not been easy. Thomas and his family spent years learning the culture, rules, and laws in the U.S. Just when they started to feel like they belonged, everything changed. Thomas has been ridiculed for speaking a foreign language in public and told to “go back to Mexico,” a place he’s never even been.

“The way people look at us, the way they talk to us — it’s changed. And now we have a president saying that kind of behavior is okay?” Thomas says, dismayed. “We’re planning to move back to our home country to make sure our son is safe,” he says. “Leaving is hard, but we have to do what’s best for our baby.”

Right now, the class action win ensures that all children are protected from the order, and there is no reason for families to fear whether they need to move, give birth in another state, or take other drastic steps to secure their children’s citizenship. But the fight is not over. The government has asked the Supreme Court to decide the birthright citizenship issue in the coming months.

At the ACLU, we know that no one should ever be subject to a total erasure of their rights and, beyond the law, birthright citizenship is and has always been central to who we are as a nation. For Jane, Andrew, and Thomas, this fight may be long, but they hope to see it won, for their children’s sake.

“I just want my child to have a normal, regular life, like any other citizen that lives here,” Jane said. “I want him to respect the country and to have a happy life.”

If you think your child is subject to the executive order and you have any questions, please visit the class website here.