Today, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) released the following statements in reaction to news that the Supreme Court will hear a case on the administration’s plan to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizen parents.
“If this order goes into effect, it threatens to create a generation of stateless children—babies born here who, through no fault of their own, could be left legally invisible and stripped of the most basic protections a child born in the US deserves,” said Zain Lakhani, Director of Migrant Rights and Justice at WRC. “These would be children with no country, no papers, and few pathways to stability or even a recognized identity in any nation. The lifelong consequences for their health and safety would be staggering and is not how the US should treat children born in this country.”
“There are a significant number of foreign women residing in the US who lack the ability to pass their nationality to their children, because their country’s nationality law denies women this right,” said Catherine Harrington, Global Campaign for Equal Nationality Rights Manager. “Additionally, the US lacks diplomatic relations with several countries—Iran and Venezuela for example—meaning those countries do not have diplomatic services enabling access to passports or travel documents in the US. If birthright citizenship is revoked, there will be a population of children born in the US to parents from these countries, unable to access the nationality documents needed to depart the US with their parent or thrive within our borders. The US was previously a leader in combating statelessness and advancing women’s equal nationality rights around the world. Without birthright citizenship, the US will cause irreparable harm to US-born children and their parents.”