North Texas advocates are praising the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Tuesday upholding birthright citizenship.
The court's 6-3 ruling preserves a constitutional guarantee that children born in the U.S. to non-citizen parents are granted automatic citizenship. It rejected an executive order President Donald Trump issued on the first day of his second term that sought to bar citizenship for children born to parents in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
"My initial reaction was the deepest sigh of relief," said Stephanie Drenka, the executive director of the Dallas Asian American Historical Society.
She said the ruling is significant to Asian communities: The legal precedent for birthright citizenship came from a landmark 1898 ruling the case of Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, but was denied reentry into the U.S. after visiting his family in China. The Supreme Court ruled that because of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, he was a citizen.
"This is just an affirmation that Asian Americans and immigrants throughout our country now have this guaranteed protection," Drenka said.
She said although much of the discussion around the current case surrounded Latino immigrants, a Penn State study found Asian families would also be greatly impacted by the loss of birthright citizenship.
"We have to make sure that we are protecting each other in times like this because a precedent like this has the potential to impact a much wider population than I think we initially think of," she said.
Community organizer and artist Ofelia Faz-Garza said she’s a product of birthright citizenship — her mother was pregnant with her when her parents arrived in Forth Worth from Mexico in the 1970s. She said after last week's rulings ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and Syrians and allowing the U.S. to turn away asylum seekers at the border, Tuesday's decision made her hopeful for future children born to migrant families.
"We've gotten so much bad news lately and things have been so heavy, and it just feels like we've had so many losses that this was great news to receive," she said.
Additional reporting from Lucio Vasquez.
Priscilla Rice is KERA’s communities reporter. Got a tip? Email her at price@kera.org.
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