Trump signed EO 14160 directing agencies to deny birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and visa holders

On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14160, "Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," directing federal agencies to refuse to recognize birthright citizenship for children born in the United States if neither parent was a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. The order instructed the State Department to withhold U.S. passports from such children and directed the Social Security Administration to deny them Social Security numbers, effectively treating as non-citizens a class of people born on U.S. soil who under established constitutional interpretation have been citizens since birth.

The 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause provides that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens." The Supreme Court held in United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898) that this language grants citizenship to virtually all persons born on U.S. soil regardless of their parents' immigration status — a reading consistently applied by every subsequent administration. No president before Trump had attempted to redefine the clause by executive order; altering constitutional text requires a constitutional amendment ratified by three-fourths of states.

Multiple federal district courts issued nationwide injunctions blocking EO 14160 within days of its signing, finding the plaintiffs likely to succeed on the merits that the order violated the 14th Amendment. On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Trump v. CASA, Inc. that district courts lack authority to issue nationwide injunctions beyond named parties — a ruling that allowed partial enforcement in states without active plaintiffs but did not address the constitutional merits. A class-wide injunction was subsequently granted by a New Hampshire district court in Barbara v. Trump on July 10, 2025, blocking enforcement against the certified class of affected children.

Updates

April 1, 2026 — SCOTUS oral arguments in Trump v. Barbara (No. 25-365): The Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutional merits of EO 14160. Court observers noted that a majority of justices appeared skeptical of the government's position that the 14th Amendment permits citizenship restrictions by executive order. A ruling was expected before the Court's summer recess in early July 2026. Source: SCOTUSblog case page; ABC News.