This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. Barbara (PDF) that children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and are citizens at birth under the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The majority thus struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that such children do not qualify for citizenship under the 14th Amendment or the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, noted:
“When the principal dissent does grapple with the operative legal text — ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States — it has little to say. It argues only that a person is ‘subject to the jurisdiction of the government of his domicile.’ … But that is not the question. The question is whether a person is ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the government of the country in which he is physically present, even if he is only there temporarily. He is (unless he falls under one of the familiar exceptions, such as for ambassadors).”
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