Over the coming weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether babies born on American soil are truly entitled to American citizenship under the Constitution, a guarantee that has held for more than a century. The case stems from President Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship by executive order, and tens of thousands of parents across the country are now on edge as they wait for the court to rule.
The stakes are intensely personal for families like that of a woman identified as Lily, whose son was born nine months ago on American soil. When she was four months pregnant, she learned that the president had signed an executive order that would deny citizenship to babies born to non-citizens like her, a moment that turned what should have been a joyful pregnancy into a source of deep anxiety about her child's future.
The courts put the order on hold just before Lily's son was born, but the relief is far from settled. With her asylum application still pending, she agreed to speak only with her identity protected, citing concerns that she could be targeted by the administration for speaking out about a policy that strikes at the heart of her family's security in the country.
Lily fears that if the Supreme Court allows the president to redefine who is eligible for citizenship at birth, her son and the children of millions of immigrants in the United States could be rendered stateless through no fault of their own. A child who is stateless, advocates warn, would have no access to identification, cutting them off from basic functions of everyday life.
Conchita Cruz, who leads one of the groups suing the government to block the order, said her organization has heard from many asylum seekers who are terrified that their children could be born undocumented even though the parents themselves have legal status. Among their fears, she said, are that a child could be at risk of deportation or of being separated from their parents.
The Trump administration has countered that only babies born after the order takes effect would be affected, insisting that the children of unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors have no formal allegiance to the United States and therefore should not qualify for citizenship. That position is at the center of the legal fight now headed for the nation's highest court.
Beyond the immediate cases, experts warn the change could ripple far wider, since U.S. birth certificates, long the gold standard for proving citizenship, would no longer be sufficient on their own. That shift could affect even older Americans applying for Social Security benefits, a passport or a home mortgage, while hitting vulnerable children hardest of all, including American-born children of undocumented parents who have known no other country as home.