Immigrant moms with American babies anxiously await birthright citizenship ruling
Fear and uncertainty as the Supreme Court decides Trump birthright case.
At eight months old, baby Ivan is blissfully ignorant of the looming legal upheaval that could soon alter his life and of fear gripping his young mom, Lily, a Ukrainian asylum-seeker.
"The politics is changing, and we don't know what will be," she told ABC News in an interview.
Ivan was born on American soil just a few months after President Donald Trump signed an order that would deny U.S. citizenship to him and millions of other babies born to non-citizen parents like Lily, who sought safety abroad as her hometown came under Russian assault.
Federal judges quickly put the order on hold, but soon the Supreme Court will definitively decide whether Trump can end birthright citizenship and redefine who becomes an American at birth.
"My baby deserves citizenship. He shouldn't be stateless," said Lily. "He should belong to this country because he was born under the American flag, and he's a subject of this jurisdiction. If he wants, he will serve this country as well."
Lily and Ivan are pseudonyms ABC News agreed to use to protect the family's identity over concerns it could be targeted by the Trump administration while Lily's asylum application is still pending.
If Trump prevails at the court in a ruling expected by early July, legal advocates say Ivan and the children of millions of immigrants in the U.S. could be rendered stateless through no fault of their own.
"If a child is stateless, that means that they wouldn't have access to any identification -- and I'm not just talking about U.S. identification -- any identification period," said Conchita Cruz, an attorney and co-executive director of the Asylum Seekers Advocacy Project, one of the groups suing the government to block Trump's order.
"We've heard from so many asylum seekers and other people who are here, who are so scared that even though they have legal status here in the U.S., that their child would be born undocumented, that they're at risk of their child being deported, that their child could be separated from them," Cruz said.
The Trump administration says the order only applies to babies born after it takes effect, though some legal experts have warned of a potential gray area between when it was signed in January 2025 and a final decision by the court.
"The question is, if they give birth to someone in the United States, is that person naturally a citizen? That would turn based on the original public meaning of the clause on the lawfulness of their presence, are they domiciled," U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices during oral arguments in the case last month.
The meaning of the word 'domiciled' is at the heart of the constitutional dispute.
The administration argues drafters of the 14th Amendment, which established birthright citizenship, only intended it for children whose parents permanently reside -- or are domiciled -- in the U.S.
Moreover, the government claims, the children of unlawful immigrants and temporary visitors like Lily have no formal "allegiance" to the U.S. and therefore shouldn't qualify for citizenship.
A majority of justices during a historic hearing in April suggested that figuring out a 'domicile' for parents of more than 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. every year could be a very tall task.
"How are we going to determine domicile?" Justice Neil Gorsuch asked Sauer. "And do we have to do this for every single person?"
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wondered what it could mean for all expectant moms. "So are we bringing pregnant women in for depositions?" she asked.
"What if you don't know who the parents are?" posited Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
"The [administration's] guidance provides, I think, very, very clear, objective, verifiable approaches to doing this," Sauer responded.
More than 125 years ago, the Supreme Court answered the question of who is eligible for birthright citizenship in the landmark case U.S. v Wong Kim Ark, a baby born to Chinese nationals in California, who the court ultimately ruled was automatically American under the 14th Amendment.
Wong's great-grandson Norman told ABC News he now fears the dismantling of his family's legacy.
"I couldn't imagine we would be in this situation. When we were children, when you were born here, you're American. It's that simple," he said. "When we were growing up, kids all around me knew they were American. It was simple rules that everyone could understand."
Researchers estimate Asian and Latino babies would be most impacted by a decision overturning Wong Kim Ark and allowing Trump to end birthright citizenship.
More than 90% of babies born on U.S. soil without citizenship or legal status by 2050 would be Latino, while the number of "unauthorized" Asian babies would increase fivefold, according to social scientists from Penn State University in an article published this year in the journal Demography.
For American-born children of undocumented immigrants there is also a worry that U.S. citizenship could be rescinded.
"I can't sleep peacefully. I'm worried about this whole situation," said Viviana, an undocumented mother of three from Ecuador who has lived and worked in the shadows in the U.S. for four years.
"I am very afraid. My daughter would lose her rights," she said of her 4-year-old girl, Denise. "Not only my daughter, there are many children who would lose their privileges that they have, such as medical insurance, also to attend school normally."
U.S. birth certificates, the gold standard of proving American citizenship for generations, would no longer be sufficient for anyone -- including older Americans -- to apply for Social Security benefits, a passport, even a home mortgage.
That change, experts say, could hit vulnerable children especially hard since many lower-income families lack the knowledge or financial resources to obtain and preserve critical personal records.
"It delays all kinds of services," said Bruce Lesley, president of First Focus on Children, a bipartisan policy advocacy group, who said children without proper proof of citizenship could miss out on nutrition, medical, or educational assistance.
"Let's say a mom is on Medicaid and is getting health care from prenatal care all the way through. At birth, the kid has no citizenship," Lesley said. "You have to prove citizenship and have some governmental entity say, 'Oh yes, you've now proven.' So there's a delay. Six months, nine months."
For Trump, who attended the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the case -- the first sitting president to ever do so -- birthright citizenship has long been a ripoff for taxpayers.
It was "not meant for people taking vacations to become permanent Citizens of the United States of America, and bringing their families with them, all the time laughing at the "SUCKERS" that we are!" Trump posted on social media last year.
For Lily, birthright citizenship for her infant Ivan is about her family's investment in their community and the country where they've made a new home.
"My baby didn't change a country, and he shouldn't be guilty for it that he was born in the United States," she said. "I want my child to be happy in his life and to have a good job, to have a great wife. I hope he will get it. And, do it here."
Related Topics
Popular Reads
ABC News Live