By June this year, children born to Filipinos not only among the “TNTs” but more so to those who are in the country lawfully — thousands of them nurses on working visas — may no longer acquire citizenship at birth.
These children could be born as undocumented and subject for deportation if the Supreme Court upholds President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160 he issued in January 2025 eliminating universal birthright citizenship — a pathway that for generations has always been open to Filipinos.
A ruling is expected in June 2026 amid hopes that the conservative justices will set aside their fidelity to Trump to uphold the US Constitution.
“At the heart of this issue is the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which confers citizenship upon all persons “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” San Francisco-based immigration lawyer Lou Tancinco explained.
Tancinco said since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in US v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898, “American jurisprudence has consistently interpreted this clause as embodying the jus soli principle — the right of citizenship by place of birth, irrespective of the immigration status of one’s parents.”
