H-1B Visa Holders: What the US Supreme Court's Birthright Ruling Means for Their Children
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US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship, ensuring children born to H-1B holders, students and undocumented Indian migrants remain US citizens.
By Pranjal Gupta
New Delhi, July 1: US President Donald J. Trump's proposed order to eliminate automatic citizenship for children born on US soil was struck down by the US Supreme Court. Trump's order was rejected in a 6-3 ruling, preserving the long-settled understanding of the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which makes anyone born in the country a US citizen.
“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,’” the court held.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment, “We keep that promise today.”
What it Means for H-1B Visa Holders
The ruling is particularly significant for H-1B visa holders in the United States, many of whom may themselves have to wait decades for citizenship. It also applies to people on temporary visas, such as students and visitors, whose children born in the US will continue to be automatically granted citizenship and a lifetime right to live there. The verdict also preserves birthright citizenship for children born in the US to undocumented Indian migrants.
“The ruling is a profound affirmation of who belongs in America. Indians and South Asian immigrant families are among those most directly threatened by Trump's executive order,” Chinten Patel, Executive Director of Indian American Impact, an organisation promoting political participation within the community, told news agency IANS.
Referring to the decades-long green card backlog for Indians on H-1B visas, Patel said their “children are often born here long before their parents have a clear path to permanency.”
“Today the Supreme Court looked at those families and said, ‘Your children are Americans. They belong here,’” Patel said.
US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said the decision reaffirmed “a fundamental constitutional principle: every child born in the United States is an American citizen.”
“Since its ratification in the wake of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment has enshrined the principles of equal citizenship and equal protection under the law, including its guarantee of birthright citizenship,” he said.
