MPAC Welcomes Supreme Court Ruling Affirming Birthright Citizenship for Every Child Born on U.S. Soil
Washington, D.C. | mpac.org | June 30, 2026—The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) welcomes today’s Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Barbara, which strikes down Executive Order 14160, and reaffirms that the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees citizenship to virtually every child born on American soil, regardless of a parent’s immigration status. The ruling protects a principle that has anchored American belonging for more than 150 years.Executive Order 14160, signed by President Trump on January 20, 2025, his first day back in office, attempted to deny citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who were undocumented or only temporarily present in the country. The order was blocked by every court that considered it, and never took effect.
Today, the Court ruled 6-3 that the order was unlawful. This rule stood for over a century, and Trump's team wanted the Court to dismiss it.
While the Supreme Court ultimately struck down the order, the political and legal effort to end birthright citizenship carries severe implications for the American Muslim community and other immigrant communities writ large. This would have been detrimental to families, especially those with mixed-status, potentially stripping citizenship from more than a quarter-million babies born in the U.S. each year, according to research from the Migration Policy Institute and Penn State University's Population Research Institute. Its reach extended well beyond undocumented immigrants: the restrictions would also have applied to the U.S.-born children of people legally present in the country, including students and green card applicants.Beyond the tangible consequences had it taken effect, the overruling of birthright citizenship would open the gates for the Trump administration to decide who ‘deserves’ to be an American, furthering the tropes that portray immigrants as people who are incompatible with America’s “western values”—rhetoric specifically targeting the Muslim community here.
The same logic that would brand a U.S.-born child as a permanent outsider is the logic behind the rising hostility our communities face every day.
MPAC is grateful to the ACLU, the Legal Defense Fund, the Asian Law Caucus, CASA de Maryland, and the broad coalition of partners who carried this fight on behalf of Barbara and families like hers.
However, this win is not the end of the work. Suspicion directed at immigrants of all faiths and backgrounds, particularly the American Muslim community, persists in legislation and in political and mainstream rhetoric. The administration has already signaled it will look for other ways to restrict who reaches American soil in the first place. MPAC will continue to defend the principle that citizenship and belonging to this country cannot be rationed and reserved for only a segment of society, and to stand with every community targeted by efforts to narrow who counts as American.
