Immigration attorneys and advocates for immigrant rights in Connecticut had been waiting all term for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide who can remain a U.S. citizen if they are born on American soil.
Attorney Erin O’Neil with Norte Immigration Law in East Hartford had been bracing herself for what she said would be the worst.
“I was processing this morning and anticipating a decision that did not uphold birthright citizenship,” O’Neil said. “I really couldn't fathom or handle how I would approach the law moving forward as an attorney, especially as an attorney who represents so many immigrants throughout Connecticut.”
Late Tuesday morning, they finally got the news.
In upholding a broad conception of birthright citizenship, the court rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
For some, the court’s decision to uphold the right to birthright citizenship enshrined in the 14th amendment of the Constitution carried additional weight, as it dropped the same week the country marks its 250th anniversary on the 4th of July.
“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,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment. “We keep that promise today.”
O’Neil said the court’s ruling “goes to the core fundamental foundation of the 14th Amendment.”
“That, thank God, has been preserved,” she said.
Kica Matos, New Haven-based attorney and leader of the National Immigration Law Center, shared a brief initial reaction via text message to Connecticut Public.
“I’m so relieved,” Matos wrote.
Matos later shared her impressions after reading the opinions of three dissenting justices.
“While I'm feeling a great sense of relief over this ruling, I also want to say that it's really concerning to me that three justices of this current Supreme Court were willing to entertain dismantling birthright citizenship,” Matos said. “To me, it shows how fragile even our most foundational constitution guarantees have become.”
She cautioned that other groups could be targeted, in addition to continued immigration efforts by the Trump administration.
“What it tells us advocates, and what it tells families who are immigrant families, is that this fight is far from over,” Matos said. “We have to be vigilant, and we have to double down on our fight for the basic rights of immigrants, and Americans at large should understand that authoritarianism does not stop with one particular segment of the population.”
Community groups reflect
While immigrant rights groups in Connecticut celebrated Tuesday’s opinion on birthright citizenship, they remain concerned about the administration’s agenda on immigration enforcement.
“With everything that's been happening, and all the attacks that our immigrant community has been receiving, this means that it's a win,” said Wendy Cardenas, Executive Director of the immigrant advocacy group Make the Road CT. “It's a win for us, it's a win for the community, and it's a win after all the pushback, and all the things that we have been doing to make sure that our communities are being protected.”
She said advocates in her organization initially felt at peace hearing the decision upheld birthright citizenship, because it could affect so many.
“Our membership is immigrant and there's a lot of mixed status families,” she said. “There was fear that something could happen. So I'm glad that nothing was changed, and that our families could be at peace right now, for now.”
But the fight for immigrant rights doesn’t end with this ruling, Cardenas said. Carolina Bortolleto, Volunteer with Danbury Unites for Immigrants, agrees.
“The Supreme Court's ruling today kind of affirms what we know all along, and what actually should never have been up for debate. Birthright citizenship is a constitutional right. It's a key point of our democracy,” Bortolleto said. “Protecting birthright citizenship was a victory today, but the ultimate goal is living in society where everyone is able to live in dignity and safety, and at the end of the day, the only way that that's going to happen for immigrant families like mine is if we all have access to a pathway to citizenship.”
Reaction from elected officials
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong applauded the court’s ruling.
“The Supreme Court did its job today—they read the words of the Constitution,” Tong said in a statement. “The Fourteenth Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Ronald Reagan was right — our Constitution spells out the promise that anyone can be an American. This promise is a hope and aspiration that defines us, makes us who we are, and distinguishes us above all others.”
The Democratic members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation also celebrated the ruling.
“Birthright citizenship is crystal clear in the Constitution. This ruling should never have been so close,” U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3rd District, said in a statement. “But today, millions of Americans — people born here, raised here, who have lived all their lives as American citizens and who call no other country home — can rest.”
Connecticut Public's Matt Dwyer and Connecticut Public/Connecticut Mirror's Lisa Hagen contributed to this report, as did the Associated Press. This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
