Trump suffers major defeat as US Supreme Court protects birthright citizenship for migrants' children

The US Supreme Court has blocked President Donald Trump's bid to end birthright citizenship for children born to migrants in the United States. (Photo: Hu Yousong/Xinhua/picture alliance)

By Bashir Mbuthia
Tuesday, June 30, 2026

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The US Supreme Court has ruled that President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for children born to migrants in the country illegally or on temporary visas violates the Constitution, preserving birthright citizenship.

The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump's attempt to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas, dealing his administration a major setback on one of its signature immigration policies.

Trump sought to end birthright citizenship through an executive order signed on January 20, 2025. Had it taken effect, the order would have ended the long-standing practice under which nearly everyone born on US soil is automatically recognised as an American citizen.

In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court held that the executive order violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees citizenship to people born in the country. The court reaffirmed that children born in the United States are citizens at birth, except in a handful of well-established exceptions.

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“The Court today takes the extraordinary step of holding facially unconstitutional the President’s Order excluding from citizenship the children of foreign temporary visitors and illegal aliens,” Justice Clarence Thomas, one of the three opposing judges, wrote.

“In doing so, the Court adds to the sad history of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed and understood to secure equal rights for the freed blacks but has instead been repurposed for political projects that the Reconstruction Congress did not support.”

The case was closely watched because it tested one of the Trump administration's most controversial immigration policies. Trump had argued that the constitutional guarantee of citizenship should not apply to children whose parents were in the country illegally or only temporarily.

Lower courts had previously blocked the executive order, ruling that it conflicted with both the Constitution and decades of legal precedent on birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court's decision now settles the issue, preserving automatic citizenship for children born in the United States under the existing constitutional framework.