Haitian leaders and immigrant advocates welcome Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship
Days after the court cleared the end of TPS for Haitians, it rejected President Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, a decision Haitian American leaders called a rebuke.
NEW YORK, United States. Haitian American legislators and immigration advocates on June 30 welcomed the US Supreme Court’s ruling rejecting President Donald Trump’s attempt to restrict birthright citizenship for the children of Caribbean and other immigrants.
Brooklyn Democratic Party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, said “children born in America should not have to prove they belong here because of where their parents came from, what language their family speaks, or the colour of their skin.”
“Birthright citizenship is a constitutional right and a fundamental human right. No president can erase it by executive order,” said Bichotte Hermelyn, who represents the 42nd Assembly District in Brooklyn.
She linked the decision to the court’s ruling days earlier on Temporary Protected Status. “While the Supreme Court was wrong in this week’s TPS ruling, today’s decision is a resounding rebuke,” she said.
‘A victory for Haitian families’
The San Diego-based Haitian Bridge Alliance described the decision as “a victory for Haitian families and all immigrant communities.” Its executive director, Guerline Jozef, said it was “also a victory for TPS recipients and other immigrant parents raising US-born children.”
The background
In 2025 the Trump administration issued an executive order seeking to deny birthright citizenship to some US-born children of immigrants. Advocates challenged the order, and the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in April 2026.
At a press conference led by the New York Immigration Coalition, Make the Road New York and Hands off NYC, community leaders and attorneys set out the ruling’s implications. Murad Awawdeh, president of the coalition, called it “a monumental victory for immigrant families” but said Congress must still create a pathway to citizenship.
A Make the Road member and DACA recipient, who asked that her surname not be used, said she was pregnant when the order was signed. “Every day since that executive order was signed until the day I gave birth, I wondered if my newborn would be considered a US citizen,” she said.
Political reaction
New York Attorney General Letitia James called birthright citizenship “a constitutional guarantee that has defined this nation for generations.” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the court had reaffirmed that “if you are born in America, you belong in America.”
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez warned that “the fight does not end here,” adding that this would “not be the last attempt to strip Americans of their constitutional protections.”
