By Miriam Raftery
July 3, 2026 (San Diego) — In the very week that the United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, several Supreme Court rulings have a direct bearing on the future of our democracy and the liberties of immigrants who, like our founding fathers, came here seeking a better life. The justices upheld birthright citizenship for babies born to immigrants in the U.S., but took away the right of asylum seekers at the border to received a credible fear hearing. The conservative majority also authorized stripping away temporary protected status from immigrants who came here legally, allowing deportation even if it is unsafe to return to their homelands due to war, natural disasters, or other dangerous conditions.
By a 6-3 vote, the justices struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship. Trump’s order, which was blocked by lower courts, sought to bar citizenship for babies born in the U.S. to parents who entered the country illegally or who are living and working here legally with temporary visas.
The Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump tried to argue that the 14th Amendment’s language was only meant to protect children of former slaves.
However, courts have previously held that all children born in the U.S. are citizens, with the only exceptions children of diplomats and children born to a foreign occupying force. Notably, the Supreme Court previously ruled that a child born here to Chinese immigrants is an American citizen.
Yet three justices dissented: conservatives Clarence Thomas, Thomas Alito and Neil Gorsuch. Alito, in his dissent, claimed the 14th amendment should only apply to those owing allegiance to the United States.
Even conservatives Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts joined with liberal justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson to uphold the right of birthright citizenship.
According to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute, more than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the executive order.
The Supreme Court majority’s ruling protects millions of people who have been born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens, as well as countless future generations of immigrants’ children.
Cecilia Wang, national director of the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU, has stated, “This victory belongs to all of us and to the American people.”
But in other key decisions, the Supreme Court shut down opportunities for many who aspire to come to America, and opened the door to mass deportations of many who have come here legally.
The justices, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that the U.S. has the right to turn away asylum seekers at the border. The ruling overturns decades of policy that had allowed anyone who sought asylum at the border a right to a hearing to determine whether they had a credible fear claim that could make them eligible for asylum to remain in the U.S.
That case was filed by Al Otro Lado, an immigrant rights group in San Diego, on behalf of 13 people seeking asylum.
The ruling means that instead of requesting asylum while at the international border in Mexico or Canada, more people fleeing violence or persecution are apt to resort to more desperate measures—crossing the border illegally in East County’s treacherous deserts and rocky mountainous terrain, since only people who enter the U.S. before requesting asylum are entitled to a hearing–with no guarantee that asylum will be granted.
In yet another 6-3 ruling, the high court authorized the Trump administration to take away temporary protected status for Syrian and Haitian refugees. The justices overturned lower court rulings, opening the door for mass deportation of people granted temporary protected status due to war, civil unrest or natural disasters that made returning to their home countries unsafe.
Days after that ruling, the Trump administration initiated steps to cancel temporary protected status for thousands of migrants from seven countries: Ethiopia, Burma, South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, Syria and Haiti. Among the conditions that continue to make these countries unsafe are war, famine, and religious persecution, as well as the aftermaths of devastating hurricanes and earthquakes.
The Statue of Liberty, long a beacon of hope for immigrants, promises welcome in America for all who are “yearning to breathe free.”
But on the 250th anniversary of America’s independence from Britain, the promise of hope for a better life in a new land that our founding fathers fought for – all of whom were immigrants themselves—is now being denied to many immigrants