DETROIT, June 30, 2026: MIRC celebrates the U.S. Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship. In a 6-3 decision, the Court struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to strip citizenship from American children born to certain immigrant parents. Today’s decision affirms that the Constitution, not the president, defines who is a citizen and the Constitution cannot be rewritten by executive order. The Court also affirmed a fundamental American promise: if you are born in the United States, you are an American citizen. Your parents’ immigration status does not affect your citizenship. This is a major victory for Michigan families, and all Americans.
On day one, Trump signed an executive order attempting to bar citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are undocumented or living and working in the U.S. legally with temporary visas. The executive order did not go into effect because every lower court judge concluded that the order was “blatantly unconstitutional.” The 14th Amendment guaranteeing birthright citizenship has been in place for over 150 years. It was established in the aftermath of the Civil War to repair a shameful wrong and affirm the principle of equal citizenship. This principle has been reaffirmed in Supreme Court cases for more than a century. Civil rights leaders have fought to defend this right and Americans of all stripes recognize this guarantee. Today, the Court said presidents cannot undo that constitutional commitment with the stroke of a pen.
The stakes in this case were incredibly high. A ruling against birthright citizenship would have created a permanent underclass of people born here but denied full rights, while opening the door to widespread confusion and new barriers for families trying to prove their children belong. This would have affected all Americans – not just immigrants – and would have created bureaucratic chaos for every family trying to prove their child or newborn’s citizenship, inviting racial profiling and establishing a dangerous precedent for executive overreach. Turning our back on the 14th amendment would have returned us to an era Americans fought to never see again – the creation of a subclass of Americans. After the horrors of slavery, the 14th amendment overturned the Dred Scott decision and ensured all persons born in the U.S. would have equal rights as citizens. Thanks to today’s decision, we will not go back to that dark time in our history when lawmakers tried to strip the descendants of slaves of their birthright and when citizenship depended on the color of a person’s skin.
For the past year, parents across Michigan have lived with the fear that their American-born children could be rendered stateless by executive action. 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. Citizenship strengthens families and communities across the country, and also brings greater stability and social cohesion to the nation. We are strongest when citizenship is secure, equal, and grounded in the Constitution — not subject to political whim.
This was one of the most consequential decisions in our history and it should have been unanimous. That serves as a warning that we cannot take our rights for granted and must continuously work to safeguard the guarantees of the Constitution. It is shameful that instead of focusing on the issues that would make life easier for working families, this administration was trying to decide which babies count and which do not. Sadly, the attack on citizenship is part of a broader effort to strip legal protections and status from as many people in this country as possible. This administration has been doing everything it can to rescind the rights of immigrants and their children. While the Court protected the rights of children born here to immigrant parents, last week it gave the Trump administration carte blanche to end the legal status of parents with temporary protected status. We continue to see many mixed-status families painfully navigate these challenges. While hopefully today’s decision settles the birthright citizenship question once and for all, there remains a larger struggle ahead. We must create more pathways to citizenship to fully include all our immigrant community members. As we approach the country’s 250th birthday, we hope today’s decision brings a renewed commitment to our shared American values and the long project of forging a vibrant, multiracial democracy.
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center (MIRC) is a statewide legal resource center for Michigan’s immigrant communities that works to build a thriving Michigan where immigrant communities experience equity and belonging. MIRC’s work is rooted in three pillars: direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community engagement and education. michiganimmigrant.org