June 27, 2025
NATIONWIDE – Stop AAPI Hate issued the following statement condemning the U.S. Supreme Court’s dangerous decision to restrict the scope of the nationwide injunctions, allowing President Trump’s executive order targeting birthright citizenship to take partial effect. The Court punted back to lower courts, which must narrow the injunctions only for each plaintiff with standing to sue. This is a dangerous step backward in the fight for equal rights, and effectively creates a fractured system in which a child’s right to citizenship depends on geography or access to the courts to seek individual relief. The Court’s ruling opens the door to denying U.S. citizenship to children based solely on their parents’ citizenship status — undermining a core constitutional principle and disproportionately harming immigrant communities. The statement below can be attributed to Cynthia Choi, Co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and Co-Executive Director of Chinese for Affirmative Action:
“Let’s call this outcome what it truly is: It’s part of a broader attempt by the Trump administration to erase communities of color in America and to weaken our political power for generations to come.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to undermine children’s constitutional right to birthright citizenship is a direct threat not just to the futures of Asian American families but also to our rightful place in this country as a community woven into its fabric. Narrowing the nationwide injunctions that have thus far paused Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order will devastate Asian American communities now and long into the future. The Court’s ruling permits the creation of a new class of stateless individuals, leaving countless children in limbo, tearing families apart, and fundamentally calling into question whether immigrant families and people of color have a place in this country.
“We are also deeply unsettled by the nationwide chaos that will undoubtedly ensue as parents and states determine how to proceed with the Court’s ruling today. Until a final decision is reached, we are especially concerned for the many expecting parents who do not have the ability to seek individual relief in court. Meanwhile, innocent babies born without birthright citizenship will be stripped of basic human rights to education and healthcare and could be subjected to deportation. And, as adults, they could be forced to live in the only country they’ve ever known as a stateless population, politically disenfranchised and vulnerable to inhumane treatment.”
“This ruling is not just a legal setback, it is a direct attack on the rights and dignity of Asian Americans and immigrant communities. The Trump administration’s xenophobic efforts to weaponize the courts against our communities seeks to strip away citizenship and belonging from millions, including DACA recipients, international students, essential workers, and those on temporary status—more than 3 million Asian people across the country. Now, under Trump’s executive order, their children will be denied U.S. citizenship at birth and, with it, the right to fully participate in our democracy. This decision threatens to undo generations of progress our communities have fought to achieve.”
“In a time when immigrant communities in Los Angeles and across the country are under attack, we must do more to ensure AAPI voices have a say in the future of our nation’s democracy, starting with preserving all children’s path to birthright citizenship. Stop AAPI Hate will not be silent as our communities are targeted. We will continue to fight back against all attempts to undermine birthright citizenship and will stand in unwavering solidarity with those impacted until justice is fully realized. We call upon representatives to support the Born in the USA Act, which would ban the use of federal funds to fulfill Trump’s executive order to deny the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.”
