• The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Trump v. Barbara, a challenge to Executive Order 14160 that seeks to restrict birthright citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
• The order has been blocked nationwide, so children born in the US are still treated as US citizens for now.
• A final ruling next year will decide whether presidents can narrow birthright citizenship without changing the Constitution, with major consequences for immigrant families.

---

The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear a high-stakes case on President Donald Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship, a move that has raised fresh uncertainty for children of immigrant parents, including many Nepali families who have made the United States their home.

The case, Trump v. Barbara (No. 25-365), challenges Executive Order 14160 – “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”. Signed on 20 January 2025, the order directs the federal government not to recognize automatic US citizenship for babies born on US soil if neither parent is a US citizen nor a lawful permanent resident. It targets parents who are undocumented or in the country on temporary visas such as student, work or tourist visas.

Immigrants’ rights groups led by the ACLU of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts have brought a nationwide class action on behalf of affected babies and their families. They argue that the order violates the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment and more than a century of Supreme Court precedent, including United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which held that almost everyone born in the United States is a citizen at birth regardless of their parents’ status.

Order has been blocked, but the stakes are huge

Several federal judges have already issued injunctions stopping the Trump administration from enforcing Executive Order 14160, describing the measure as likely unconstitutional and inconsistent with long-standing law. As a result, the order has never gone into effect and US-born children are still being issued birth certificates, Social Security numbers and passports as citizens.

If the Supreme Court ultimately upholds the order, future children born in the US to parents without green cards could lose automatic citizenship. Analysts estimate that more than 200,000 babies born each year to non-citizen parents would be at risk, affecting communities from Latin America and Asia to Africa and the Middle East. That pool includes many Nepali families living in the US on student, work or temporary visas, as well as those without status, who have so far relied on birthright citizenship for their US-born children. (This is an inference based on overall numbers, not a figure broken out by nationality.)

What the justices will decide

According to the Supreme Court’s case summary, the justices have agreed to decide whether Executive Order 14160 is constitutional on its face when measured against the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and 8 U.S.C. §1401(a), the federal statute that codifies birthright citizenship.

The Trump administration has argued that children of undocumented immigrants and short-term visitors are not fully “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States, the key phrase in the 14th Amendment. Civil-rights advocates counter that this reading has never been accepted by any court and would create a hereditary class of non-citizens who grow up in the US but are denied the rights of citizenship.

The court will hear arguments later this term and is expected to issue a decision by mid-2026. That ruling will either reaffirm the broad principle that “all persons born” in the United States are citizens, or it will open the door for presidents to sharply narrow who is counted as American at birth.

What Nepali families should watch

For now, Nepali parents in the US who have had children here can rely on existing documents, and babies born today are still recognized as US citizens. That status remains protected while the injunctions are in place and until the Supreme Court rules.

Community leaders and immigration lawyers say Nepali families should closely follow updates on Trump v. Barbara, keep their children’s birth records and passports safely documented, and seek legal advice before making major decisions about travel or status changes. The court’s final decision will shape not only the future of Trump’s executive order, but also the meaning of American citizenship for the next generation of immigrant children.

Civil-rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, say the order directly conflicts with more than a century of Supreme Court precedent, starting with United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), which held that almost everyone born on US soil is a citizen regardless of parental status, except children of diplomats or occupying forces.