Pregnant immigrants warily eye US Supreme Court birthright citizenship case

By Kristina Cooke

(Reuters) -Every time Barbara, a 35-year-old asylum seeker from Cuba, goes to her prenatal appointments in Louisville, Kentucky, one topic looms large among the other pregnant immigrants she talks to there: will their babies be born U.S. citizens?

Barbara, who asked to be identified by her first name only for fear of retaliation, crossed the U.S.-Mexican border with her family in 2022 and filed for asylum. A lawyer in Cuba, she said she fled political and religious persecution in her home country. She, her husband and 4-year-old daughter have pending U.S. asylum applications and lack permanent immigration status. The baby is due in July.   

An executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January that would limit automatic U.S. birthright citizenship - part of his wide-ranging immigration crackdown - would deny citizenship to their expected child, if it goes into effect.

Three federal judges issued nationwide injunctions blocking the policy, finding that it likely violated citizenship language in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, in challenges brought by Democratic attorneys general from 22 states as well as various individual pregnant immigrants and advocacy groups.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday is set to hear arguments in the Trump administration's request that the justices allow broad enforcement of the directive by narrowing the scope of the injunctions.

Trump signed the order on his first day back in the White House, directing federal agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of U.S.-born children who do not have at least one parent who is an American citizen or lawful permanent resident. 

That night, Barbara barely slept, she said. 

"Hearing that news provoked a horrible stress in me, that still follows me to this day," she said. 

If allowed to stand, Trump's order would deny citizenship to more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States, the state attorneys general said in February. About 3.6 million babies were born in the United States in 2024, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the Supreme Court, the administration has targeted only the nationwide scope of the injunctions, content to leave them in place to protect just the people who sued as well as the residents of the 22 states, assuming the justices find that these states have the required legal standing to bring their cases. That outcome would let Trump's order take effect in the 28 states that did not sue, including Kentucky, aside from any plaintiffs living in those states. And the Supreme Court could act without assessing the legality of Trump's directive.

The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, long has been understood to confer citizenship to almost everyone born in the United States. The Trump administration has argued that automatic birthright citizenship does not reflect the best reading of the 14th Amendment and it encourages "birth tourism" by expectant mothers traveling to the United States to give birth and secure citizenship for their children.

'BORN INTO A LIMBO'

For asylum seekers like Barbara, or those from countries with no embassies in the United States, the stakes are particularly high, advocates said. 

If her daughter is born with no claim to U.S. citizenship, Barbara said, she worries her child would be stateless. Seeking Cuban nationality is not an option, she said, "because we came here fleeing the regime."

Karina Ambartsoumian-Clough, executive director of United Stateless, a group that advocates for stateless people, said ending birthright citizenship would create "a subset of people with no legal identity."

Citizenship laws vary by country and policies often change, countries sometimes dissolve and borders move, Ambartsoumian-Clough said. Not all countries allow for citizenship to be passed on via a parent, Ambartsoumian-Clough added.

The more immediate practicalities also are alarming, Ambartsoumian-Clough said. For instance, how would the birth of babies be formally registered and would they be able to access medical care and vaccinations?

Barbara, who worked as a custodian at a local school until she was placed on bed rest for a high-risk pregnancy, said she will be following what happens at the Supreme Court, nervous that her baby will be "born into a limbo."

She is planning to name her daughter Valery, which means brave. 

"This baby from the womb is being very brave, and has a future to conquer in this country even though they are already making it quite difficult," Barbara said.

At her medical appointments, she said she has seen other mothers - mostly Guatemalans and Mexicans - cry while talking about the possibility of their babies not getting citizenship.

Barbara said she feels her heart rate go up and her hands begin to sweat when she talks about it, something another mother told her she was experiencing as well. 

"When I talk to the other moms," she said, "I know I'm not the only one."

(Reporting by Kristina Cooke; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson, Andrew Chung and Nate Raymond; Editing by Will Dunham)