The fight to defend birthright citizenship will reach a critical point in the United States Supreme Court in 2026.
It will be one of the most momentous constitutional decisions of recent decades.
Here is a summary of the dispute:
Upon taking office in January 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (EO 14160) to end the traditional interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
According to his order, children born on U.S. soil will not automatically receive citizenship if their parents are undocumented immigrants or are in the country on temporary visas.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 4 million Americans have at least one undocumented parent. And every year, 255,000 babies are born under the same circumstances.
The fight centers on the interpretation of a phrase in the 14th Amendment: “All persons born… in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens…”
Most federal judges who have analyzed the case have concluded that the executive order is unconstitutional. But on December 5, 2025, the Supreme Court officially agreed to review the main case, known as Trump v. Barbara.
Despite legal precedent, President Trump’s executive order argues that the spirit of the amendment applies to slaves, but not to people who entered the United States illegally.
Civil rights groups believe that if the highest court ends up denying birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants, it would pave the way for the creation of a subclass of people without a homeland and without clear rights.
“I think President Trump is going to lose this case. A president cannot make an executive decision to change this. If they want to change it, it has to be an amendment to the Constitution,” says Miami immigration lawyer Joseph Gurian. “If the justices deem the executive order constitutional, we are going to have people in this country with no documents, no country, no identities,” he argued.
For now, the executive order is blocked by lower courts in much of the country, meaning that babies born today in the U.S. remain U.S. citizens unless and until the Court rules otherwise.
In the middle of the year, the Court limited the ability of judges to issue nationwide injunctions, which made it easier for the administration to attempt to implement the order in certain regions, although the general injunction remains largely in effect.
Oral arguments are expected in the spring of 2026, and the expectation is that the Supreme Court will issue its final decision likely in June or July of 2026.
This decision will define not only the future of thousands of families but also the very meaning of the U.S. Constitution for generations to come.
