Immigration and civil rights advocates have come out in force to defend birthright citizenship in advance of an April 1 U.S. Supreme Court hearing into President Donald Trump’s attempt to end the practice.
Justices will hear oral arguments in Barbara v. Trump, a federal class-action lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the president’s Jan. 20, 2025 executive order rescinding birthright citizenship as enshrined in the 14th Amendment.
The order has been consistently blocked by lower courts with judges citing the Constitution and more than 100 years of Supreme Court precedent. The order affects all children born after Feb. 19, 2025, to parents without permanent legal status.
Marc Morial
Rights groups took to email, social media and webinars to alert Americans that basic, long-held rights are at stake as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments. Some plan to gather in front of the high court as attorneys make their cases to the justices.
The advocacy group FWD.us held a virtual press briefing March 31 featuring multiple civil rights leaders who extolled the moral and economic importance of birthright citizenship and warned that its demise would put millions of families and children at risk.
“We need look no further than American history to understand the consequences of denying birthright citizenship to people born here,” National Urban League President Marc Morial said during the webinar. “Any effort to limit the guarantee of birthright citizenship is a direct assault on civil rights and will come with devastating implications for children, families and communities.”
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868 to ensure former slaves and all other people born or naturalized in the U.S. are guaranteed citizenship, equal protection and due process.
Cedric Haynes
That means Trump’s executive order is inherently racist, said Cedric Haynes, senior vice president for policy and legislative affairs with the NAACP.
“We really have to call it what it is, which is an attack on civil rights. Birthright citizenship means certainty and stability for the people who are born here,” he added. “Tens of millions of second-generation Americans and millions more third- and fourth-generation Americans hold their citizenship because of this guarantee.”
“Protecting this right is as urgent today as it was the moment the 14th Amendment was ratified. And the attacks on it didn’t begin with this administration, as NAACP has long recognized. Efforts to nullify birthright citizenship stretch back to the moment the amendment was ratified.”
Conchita Cruz
The president’s executive order already has frightened parents grappling with the possibility their newborns could become instantly undocumented, said Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project.
“That is the case for our members who are in the U.S. legally, who have work permits and have been waiting years for the government to process a pending asylum or Green Card application. As parents, they fear potentially being separated from their newborn or that their child could be detained or deported. They worry that ICE will be waiting outside the hospital to detain their undocumented newborn.”
FWD.us President Todd Schulte expressed confidence the Supreme Court will rule to protect birthright citizenship but warned the nature of the attack itself is sobering.
“It is an effort to fundamentally rewrite who counts as American.”
“The 14th Amendment is not ambiguous. It was drafted to clearly define any person born in this country as a citizen with full and unassailable rights. Attempting to rewrite the Constitution by executive order is unprecedented and dangerous,” he said. “It would create chaos for families, confusion for employers, and a system where the rights of children born in this country are suddenly up for debate. That is not accidental. It is an effort to fundamentally rewrite who counts as American, and people need to understand just how far-reaching and dangerous that would be.”
Todd Schulte
A 2025 Public Religion Research Institute survey found 67% of Americans support the Constitution’s guarantee that citizenship is automatically granted to all children born in the country.
The Center for Migration Studies recently published a study indicating the elimination of birthright citizenship could be devastating to the U.S. economy: “Based on established demographic and economic methods, we estimate that beneficiaries of birthright citizenship will have contributed $7.7 trillion to the U.S. economy through their income between 1975 and 2074, including a projected $1 trillion by future children not yet born and whose economic contribution would be most at risk under the implementation of the Trump administration’s executive order.”
The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, announced it planned to join the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Law Caucus and other groups outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments today.
“Birthright citizenship has been settled law for more than 150 years. It is a core part of American democracy and has shaped the lives of immigrant families across the country,” LULAC said.