The United States Supreme Court has struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to limit birthright citizenship.
In a 6-3 ruling delivered on Tuesday, the court held that
the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship at birth to children born in the
country, including those whose parents are undocumented immigrants or are
residing in the United States on a temporary basis.
The decision marks a significant setback for Trump’s efforts
to narrow the scope of the citizenship clause contained in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Writing for the majority, John Roberts, the chief justice,
said the constitutional guarantee of citizenship remains a foundational
principle of American democracy.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights —
to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth
Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’,”
Roberts wrote.
“We keep that promise today.”
The US constitution’s 14th amendment says people “born or
naturalised” in the country are citizens.
However, Trump has long argued that foreign nationals
exploit the provision of the law by travelling to the US to give birth, thereby
driving up migration numbers.
Just hours after taking office last January, Trump issued an
executive order ending the birthright citizenship privilege.
Despite being initially blocked by court injunctions, the
Trump administration continued to warn foreign nationals against engaging in
birth tourism, promising strict penalties for defaulters.
Last July, the US embassy in Nigeria said travel
applications would be denied if consular officers had reason to believe that
birthright citizenship is the main motivation.
The supreme court’s ruling has now legally kicked the
president’s order out the door, leaving him with the only option of amending
America’s founding document.
Trump has yet to publicly react to the decision but earlier,
before the ruling, he berated the justices in public remarks saying that judges
who he appointed but vote against him are “stupid people”.
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