Contact: Linda Paris, Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, 202-308-5186, [email protected]

For immediate release

WASHINGTON – On April 1, 2026, the Supreme Court will hear Trump v. Barbara, a case challenging a White House attempt to end birthright citizenship. This past February, immigrants’ rights groups, represented by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, filed an amicus brief arguing Executive Order 14160 is unconstitutional. The coalition includes OCA, LULAC, ASAP, We Are CASA, MRNY, and others.

As advocates hold a rally outside the Supreme Court during oral arguments, Joanne Lin, executive director at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, issued a statement opposing the order:

“Even when anti-Asian hate spiked over 100 years ago, the Supreme Court declared that the son of Chinese immigrants born in the US was a US citizen. Congress had recently passed one of the first immigration restrictions on an ethnic group, called the Chinese Exclusion Act.

“Despite the mood of the country in 1898, the justices declared that every newborn who draws their first breath beneath the stars and stripes is a US citizen, regardless of whether their parents are visa holders, refugees or residents chasing the American dream.

“Executive action alone cannot undo this guarantee, enshrined in the Constitution. It is now up to the Supreme Court to reaffirm its long-standing decision in Wonk Kim Ark (1898) and lower court rulings.”

Read the amicus brief here.

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