On Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Trump v. Barbara, a case challenging President Donald Trump's 2025 executive order banning birthright citizenship. Justices seemed skeptical of the administration’s argument but showed how much ground nativists have gained since his first term.

The 14th Amendment is unequivocal: all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. Trump sought to overturn this, creating a stateless underclass, but alarmingly far he has already gotten.

In his second term, Trump issued an executive order titled Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship. It aimed to strip children born to undocumented mothers or women in non-immigrant visas of citizenship. But federal injunctions prevented its implementation, meaning birthright citizenship remains the law for now.

The administration’s efforts hinge on interpreting a specific clause: subject to the jurisdiction thereof. They argue that non-citizens and those without permanent residency are not subject to US jurisdiction since they’re loyal to a foreign power. This interpretation would reverse centuries of US law, leaving hundreds of thousands stateless upon birth. Justice Neil Gorsuch agreed it’s a new world but said “the Constitution is the same.”

The administration has sought to restrict legal immigration in all its forms: hiking fees for H-1B work visas, threatening student work programs, and enacting travel bans on several countries. They call this operation ‘barefacedly racist.’ The president himself openly complained about migrants from ‘shithole countries’ and expressed a desire for more people from Norway.