Day: August 10, 2026

WASHINGTON – The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) strongly opposes the Administration’s renewed effort to undermine the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.  In an executive order issued yesterday, and just over a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a previous executive order limiting birthright citizenship, the Administration purports to create additional categories of children born on American soil who would be denied birthright citizenship based solely on the status of their parents.

The law is clear. Under Trump v. Barbara, 609 U.S. ____ (2026), children born in the United States—even to parents unlawfully or temporarily present—are subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and are citizens at birth.  The Supreme Court recognized longstanding yet narrow exceptions to this rule, which include those born to foreign diplomats or invading armies. In reaffirming birthright citizenship, the Court upheld United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), which rejected consideration of the status of the parents outside of the narrow exceptions.

Yesterday’s executive order attempts to unilaterally expand the categories of children ineligible for birthright citizenship.  It would, among other things, deny citizenship to children born to parents employed by a foreign government or designated as an “alien enemy,” a term that invokes the spectrum of historical injustices during World War II when the federal government removed and incarcerated approximately 120,000 individuals of Japanese ancestry.

Since last year, NAPABA and a large coalition of its affiliated bar associations from across the country defended birthright citizenship in the lower federal courts and the Supreme Court. In several amicus briefs, we highlighted how the past generations of Asian Americans faced discrimination, exclusion, and loyalty-based suspicion, yet their American-born children—including, as another amicus curiae argued, children of parents designated as “enemy aliens”—were nonetheless recognized as citizens at birth.

NAPABA will remain vigilant and stands ready to ensure that the Fourteenth Amendment’s promise of citizenship to all persons born in the United States, regardless of the stature or circumstances of their parents, is kept.