UNITED STATES-Groups condemn US Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship.

SAN DIEGO, CMC – The Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA) has “forcefully” condemned the United States Supreme Court’s decision in partially staying preliminary injunctions on President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order for Caribbean and other immigrants, sending the issue back to lower courts for further action.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) last Friday sided with President Trump, granting his request to narrow the multiple nationwide injunctions that had blocked his Executive Order to end birthright citizenship.
US Supreme Court building

HBA’s executive director, Guerline Jozef, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that the Supreme Court’s decision that limits nationwide injunctions “clears a dangerous path for the Trump administration’s attacks on birthright citizenship to proceed in large parts of the country.

“Although procedural, the ruling did not address the core constitutional question under the 14th Amendment, instead creating immediate legal chaos and fear nationwide,” she said.

“By restricting federal courts from issuing broad injunctions beyond individual plaintiffs, the court has effectively dismantled crucial protections and created a patchwork system where a child’s right to citizenship now depends on location and local politics,” added Jozef.

She said that about 150,000 babies are born in the US each year to immigrant parents, many of them Haitian, “who rely on birthright citizenship to secure their children’s futures.

“This procedural dodge has plunged Haitian babies, born on US soil, into an existential identity crisis. A child’s right to citizenship should not hinge on geography or litigation timing. We are facing a constitutional crisis, not a legal technicality. Haitian families deserve clarity, protection, and dignity, not chaos created by political gamesmanship.”

Jozef noted that the court did not decide whether the 14th Amendment, which has guaranteed birthright citizenship since 1868 and was affirmed in 1898, protects these children.

“That fundamental issue remains pending and threatens to escalate this humanitarian and constitutional crisis,” she warned, calling on the US Congress to pass federal legislation reaffirming unconditional birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.

She also called on State governments to challenge the executive order in federal courts to maintain safeguards for all children.

Additionally, Jozef urged human rights groups to launch “coordinated legal challenges, provide rapid-response legal aid, and mobilize communities to defend vulnerable families.”

Caribbean immigration advocates and legislators have also condemned the Supreme Court’s decision.

“By narrowing nationwide injunctions, the court has opened the door for Trump to advance his dangerous and unconstitutional attempt to end birthright citizenship –a right guaranteed by the 14th Amendment for more than 150 years,” Murad Awawdeh, president and chief executive officer of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella coalition of over 200 immigrant and refugee groups in New York.

“This same Supreme Court never thought to say that the many national injunctions and stays that it upheld against the Biden administration were outside the judiciary’s power to enact,” he added.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), chaired by Caribbean-American Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in New York, also condemned the US Supreme Court’s ruling.

“By limiting the federal judiciary’s ability to issue nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration’s extremist and authoritarian policies, the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court is once again bending the law to serve President Trump instead of defending the Constitution and the American people,” said CBC in a statement.

“While this ruling makes it harder for courts to block the unlawful policies of the Trump administration entirely, the judicial fight to protect birthright citizenship and our fundamental rights will continue.

“For more than a century, a cornerstone of our law has been that those born on US soil are American citizens. President Trump’s unlawful attempts to nullify birthright citizenship are in clear violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which established African Americans as equal citizens under the law,” it added.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the US Supreme Court’s decision “is a profound and disappointing setback for the families who now face tremendous uncertainty and danger, for the millions of people who rely on the courts to protect their constitutional rights, and for the fundamental rule of law.

“Every child born on US soil is a citizen of this country, no matter which state they are born in. This has been the law of the land for more than a century,” said James, noting, however, that the case “is not over.

“My heart breaks for the families whose lives may be upended by the uncertainty of this decision. My fellow attorneys general and I will continue to defend the Constitution and the common values that unite us.”