20-05-2025
Birthright citizenship worries Michigan immigrant community
LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — President Trump signed an executive order back in January that would 'deny citizenship' to children who are born to people living in the U.S. illegally or temporarily.
The president's executive order was blocked by a federal judge, who called it 'unconstitutional,' but that still leaves many unanswered questions for first-generation citizens.
A mid-Michigan woman, who wanted to remain anonymous due to her father's citizenship status, says that as an American raised by two immigrant parents, she's terrified.
'I, myself, was born when neither of my parents had legal status,' she said.
Although she was born in the U.S. in 1988 to two Mexican immigrant parents, she says her parents didn't receive their legal status until after she was born.
'That puts me in a very, very stressful situation because if it were retroactive, what does that leave me?' she said. 'That leaves me being undocumented.'
She finds herself in the same situation as many other people who were born to immigrant parents who live in the United States.
She says currently, her mother is a U.S citizen and her father has his green card, but she still worries about what could happen next.
Julie Powers, Executive Director for Immigrant Law and Justice Michigan, says she worries for the children who could be affected.
'It's going to create chaos and confusion. It's going to absolutely devastate our schools. It's going to devastate our courts, because everything's gonna have to go through the court system,' said Powers. 'These are children, for the most part, who are most likely to be affected by this.'
Powers says President Trump's executive order conflicts with one of the amendments written in the U.S. Constitution.
'Birthright citizenship was enshrined in the 14th Amendment immediately after the Civil War, and the intention was to ensure that everyone who was born in the United States and formally enslaved people were actually counted as full people instead of three-fifths, and so, it's been in our Constitution since the 1860s,' said Powers.
She says due to the President's executive action, her clients are uneasy.
'A lot of clients are not wanting to file paperwork because they're afraid to come to a public location,' said Powers. 'Some kids aren't in school right now or doing distance learning, remote learning.'
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