SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A San Diego immigration attorney is warning that the Supreme Court's recent ruling creates an unsettling reality for undocumented families who are expecting children, even potentially complicating birthright citizenship based on location.
According to ABC News, on Friday, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, limited nationwide injunctions issued by lower court judges against President Trump's executive order to effectively end birthright citizenship.
Reuters reports that the order could affect 150,000 babies born annually in U.S.
San Diego immigration attorney, Andrew Nietor, said that the Supreme Court avoided addressing a critical constitutional question when ruling on Friday morning: Can President Trump's executive order legally strip birthright citizenship?
"It also creates this sort of patchwork where somebody born in California might have different citizenship rights than somebody born in a different state," Nietor said.
Nietor represents undocumented workers seeking citizenship, either for themselves or their family members.
President Trump said the Supreme Court's ruling on Friday was monumental and that birthright citizenship was initially meant for slaves expecting newborns. He believes the system is now being abused and birthright citizenship is being exploited.
However, Nietor disagrees with the President's claims.
"I think the statistics are pretty clear that the number of people who come to this country just for the purpose of giving birth to a child is extremely small," Nietor said. "Most cases are people coming to this country to find a better life, to reunite with families, and then while they're here, over decades, they start a family. That right to citizenship is for that child who was born in the United States and knows no other life than life in the United States. That's what the Constitution says, that's what the 14th Amendment says. If you're born in the United States, you are a United States citizen."
Pregnant women will be most affected by this uncertainty, and Nietor explained how.
"They're about to give birth to children on U.S. soil, and they don't know whether their children are going to be able to get what is guaranteed to them by the U.S. Constitution, U.S. citizenship, or whether they're potentially going to be giving birth to stateless children," Nietor said.
Nietor warns limited birthright citizenship could create an entirely new class of people in America.
"They won't have the constitutional rights that are guaranteed to them, and yet no other country is going to recognize them as citizens, so we're, we're almost literally creating 2nd, 3rd class individuals in our country," Nietor said.
As an attorney, Nietor said it will be challenging to plan for helping those families who have children born if the birthright citizenship enforcement becomes active in 30 days.
"Does that mean that they will never be able to go to school in this country? They'll never be able to work, get any health care, or open up a bank account?"
