In the United States, people are considered citizens at birth by blood (i.e., born abroad to U.S. citizen parents) or because they were born on U.S. soil. On the first day in office in his second term as president, Trump issued an executive order which aimed to change the longstanding principle that children born on U.S. soil are born as U.S. citizens. The order denied citizenship to persons born from a mother who was unlawfully present in the United States where the father was not a U.S. citizen or did not have a green card at the time of the child’s birth. It also denied citizenship to babies born to mothers with lawful but only temporary status in the United States where the father was not a citizen or LPR (green card holder). Much litigation resulted quickly. The executive order never went into effect because federal judges began declaring it unlawful and unconstitutional. The issue finally made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued a final ruling today, June 30, 2026. In that ruling, the Court confirms that all children born in the U.S., other than those born to foreign diplomats, are indeed U.S. citizens at birth. The Court confirmed that the legal immigration status of the parents of a child born on U.S. soil does not affect the child’s status. Thus, if a child is born on U.S. soil to undocumented parents, the child is a U.S. citizen. Period.
