On April 1, 2026, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara on President Trump’s bid to eliminate “birthright citizenship” for children of undocumented and temporary foreign nationals in the United States. Under the executive order being challenged, the U.S. government would no longer recognize the U.S. citizenship of children born in the United States to temporary visa holders, including F-1 students, J-1 exchange visitors, and H-1B and L-1 nonimmigrant workers.
While the outcome is uncertain, the government attorneys faced tough questions from the justices. A win for the government would fundamentally shift birth in the United States from conferring permanent citizenship to merely granting temporary, contingent immigration status dependent on a parent’s status. The 14th Amendment of the Constitution guarantees citizenship to babies born in the United States who are “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” at the time of their birth. The arguments focused on what the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction of the United States” means.
According to immigration practitioners, a ruling in the government’s favor would require that the parents of all children born in the United States establish certain domicile requirements for their children to become U.S. citizens. Because the United States has no central registry of its citizens, one would have to be created, and every U.S. citizen would have to be able to prove not only the location of their birth but also that their parents were U.S. citizens or green card holders at the time of their birth.
A ruling is expected in late June. One question is whether the Justices will rule on narrower statutory or broader constitutional grounds.
