in 2026: Will the Supreme Court rule against birthright citizenship?

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA ILLUSTRATION

If you thought 2025 was crazy, 2026 will not offer any relief for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

As the radical conservative US Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments the question of brithright citizeshp (iTrump v. Barbara) by summer 2026, the potential end of birthright citizenship isn't just a legal debate; it's an existential threat to the Asian American community—the very community that fought for and won this right over a century ago.

This new attack on birthright citizenship repeats our country’s history of targeting and excluding Asians,” said Bethany Li, executive director of Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund,“We already won this fight more than a century ago. But no matter the gains, unfortunately being Asian in America means constantly having to fight for our right to be here. Asian Americans are coming together once again to defend our right to citizenship and to call this country home."

        READ the full AALDEF amicus brief here

For those of us keeping watch from the edge, the current assault on birthright citizenship isn't just another headline—it’s a direct hit on a legacy our community fought to build. In 2026, the battle over Executive Order 14160 has reached the Supreme Court, and for Asian Americans, the stakes feel like a dangerous echo of the past.

”The administration’s push rests on a narrow, radical rewrite of the 14th Amendment. They’re zeroing in on the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," claiming it requires political allegiance that temporary visa holders or undocumented parents supposedly don’t have, says Li.

Behind the legal jargon is a clear political goal: to end what they call "birth tourism" and strip automatic citizenship from children born to those without "lawful permanent" status. While lower courts initially blocked the order, a 2025 Supreme Court ruling against nationwide injunctions has left us with a confusing "patchwork" of rights across different states.

If the Court tosses out the 14th Amendment’s "bedrock" principle, the children of US citizens and immigrants, even those with the proper documents, will be vulnerable. 

Here is who stands to lose:

Children of Legal visa holders

While much of the political rhetoric targets undocumented immigrants, Trump''s 2025 executive order explicitly targets legal immigrants on temporary visas.

H-1B and F-1 Families: Asian Americans dominate high-skill work and student visa categories. Under current proposals, children born to parents on H-1B (work) or F-1 (student) visas would no longer be recognized as US citizens at birth.

A "Stateless" Generation: For many Indian and Chinese families facing decades-long green card backlogs, their US-born children could become "stateless"—lacking citizenship in the only home they’ve ever known while potentially ineligible for their parents' home-country citizenship.

        RELATED: A look back on 2025, the year racism became normalized

Future Political Power: Asian American advocacy groups like Stop AAPI Hate warn that ending birthright citizenship is a direct attack on the future political power of our community.

Second-Class Status: Without citizenship, these children would be denied the right to vote, run for office, or serve on juries.

Access Denied: These newborns could be blocked from essential lifelines, including Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC, creating a permanent "underclass" within the AAPI community.

Think you're safe because you're already a citizen? Think again.

If birth certificates are no longer enough to prove citizenship, every parent—regardless of status—will face new, expensive hurdles to prove their child belongs.

We’ve seen this movie before. Any system that questions citizenship at birth invites racial profiling against those perceived as "perpetual foreigners."

What’s powering the DOJ's challenge?

For the AANHPI community, this isn't a new fight; it's a hundred-year-old wound that's been ripped oopen again.

We must remember Wong Kim Ark, the son of Chinese immigrants who, in 1898, took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and won birthright citizenship for all. Today, organizations like AALDEF, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Asian Law Caucus are back in the trenches, filing amicus curie and joining lawsuits to ensure that this historically radicaly SCOTUS doesn't erase over 150 years of progress.

y empowering government officials to question people’s citizenship status, the order opens the door to discriminatory and arbitrary government interference in people’s daily lives, opines the Brennan Center for Justice. "This problem won’t just be limited to the children denied citizenship under the order: Under the new legal regime the order would create, everyone would be vulnerable to having their citizenship questioned."

The 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause grants birthright citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," establishing that nearly anyone born on US soil, regardless of parents' status (even undocumented immigrants), automatically becomes a citizen, a principle reaffirmed by Supreme Court cases like United States v. Wong Kim Ark. 

This amendment was crucial for giving citizenship to formerly enslaved people after the Civil War, overturning the Dred Scott decision, and ensures equal protection under the law, though limited exceptions exist for children of diplomats or enemy forces

The administration’s push rests on a narrow, radical rewrite of the 14th Amendment. They’re zeroing in on the phrase "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," claiming it requires political allegiance that temporary visa holders or undocumented parents supposedly don’t have.

Behind the legal jargon is a clear political goal: to end what they call "birth tourism" and strip automatic citizenship from children born to those without "lawful permanent" status. While lower courts initially blocked the order, a 2025 Supreme Court ruling against nationwide injunctions has left us with a confusing "patchwork" of rights across different states.

In plain, everyday language, the push to end birthright citizenship is just another battlefront in the Trump administration's overall to  fight the myth of "white displacement" by keeping Whites in the majority that carries with it, power and privilege.

A host of legal scholars and civil rights groups, including the ACLU and several states, believe the Court will likely strike down the executive order. Today, organizations like AALDEF, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Asian Law Caucus are back in the trenches, filing amicus curie and lawsuits to ensure that SCOTUS doesn't erase over 150 years of progress.

I hope they're right but I'm not holding my breath. This radical activist Supreme Court with its six conservative Justices led by Chief Justice John Roberts has astounded legal experts by showing that they are not against overruling precedents in order to "legalize" the far-right agenda of Donald Trump.

Critics of the Supreme Court argue it's increasingly politicized, too conservative, lacks transparency, suffers from legitimacy issues due to ethics concerns, and oversteps its bounds, leading to a perception that law is just "politics by other means" and undermining its role as an impartial arbiter, with concerns about judicial overreach, lack of accountability, and profound disagreement on key issues like abortion and presidential power.

As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted, the decision “will disproportionately impact the poor, the uneducated, and the unpopular—i.e., those who may not have the wherewithal to lawyer up and will all too often find themselves beholden to the Executive’s whims.”

SCOTUS will hear arguments in the Spring and a  ruling is expected by the summer of 2026 will decide if America remains a place where, as one advocate put it, "no matter where you come from ... within a generation you belong."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge. 

New York City's Indian American mayor ushers in new era for Asian Americans

Zohran Mandani was sworn in as New York City's mayor in a subway station.

As the confetti settles over City Hall, Asian Americans across New York’s five boroughs are waking up to a reality that felt like a distant dream just a few years ago. 

Zohran Mamdani, the new Mayor of New York City, symbolically held his private swearing-in ceremony at the historic, decommissioned City Hall subway station just after midnight on New Year's Day 2026, aligning with his campaign promises for public transit and accessibility. 

He then took the subway to his first day in office, rubbing elbows with surprised commuters, further emphasizing his commitment to public transport and representing everyday New Yorkers, making it a significant visual moment for his new administration.

As the 112th Mayor of New York City, the US's largest city and the country's financial and business center, Mamdani's installation marked a seismic shift in the American political landscape.

For the Asian American community, Mamdani’s rise isn't just another win—it’s a definitive "arrival." 

Here is the social significance of Mayor Mamdani’s historic moment for Asian Americans:

Breaking the ultimate Ggass ceiling

For decades, New York’s Asian American community — the fastest-growing demographic in the city — has been described as a "sleeping giant." With Mamdani, the giant hasn't just woken up; it’s taken the driver's seat.

Mamdani is the city’s first Asian American, first South Asian, and first Muslim mayor. For a community often relegated to the "model minority" sideline, seeing a South Asian man sworn in on the steps of City Hall—using a Quran from the Schomburg Center—shatters the trope of the "perpetual foreigner."

Mamdani didn't win by appealing to elite donors; he won by organizing the taxi drivers of Richmond Hill, the street vendors of Jackson Heights, and the delivery workers of Sunset Park.

His victory signals that Asian American political identity is shifting toward working-class solidarity. By focusing on rent freezes and transit equity, he proved that the "Asian vote" is driven by the same economic anxieties as any other New Yorker.

Early data shows a massive spike in turnout among South Asian and Indo-Caribbean voters, proving that when the community sees one of their own fighting for their specific needs, they show up at the ballot box.

OFFICE OF THE MAYOR

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani surprised fellow subway riders.

Representation matters

Representation is a hollow word without power, and Mamdani is already filling his administration with faces that reflect the city’s diversity.

One of his first major moves was appointing Ali Najmi, a champion for civil rights and the South Asian community, to lead the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. This isn't just optics; it’s a structural change meant to ensure the city’s legal system finally understands the nuances of the immigrant experience.

As we often discuss here at Views From the Edge, the Asian American community is not a monolith. Mamdani’s democratic socialist platform has sparked intense debate within the diaspora.

Mamdani’s mayoralty represents a new chapter of belonging. For the kid in Flushing or the family in Kensington, for the Filipino American nurses, the South Asian taxi drivers to Asian American small business owners, the Mayor of the greatest city in the world finally looks like them, speaks like them, and understands the struggle of the hustle.

While younger voters are energized by his progressive stance, some older, more conservative segments of the Chinese and Indian communities remain skeptical of his fiscal policies. This tension is actually a sign of political maturity — it shows a community that is no longer just "happy to be here," but is actively debating the future of the city.

His victory signals that Asian American political identity is shifting toward working-class solidarity. By focusing on rent freezes and transit equity, he proved that the "Asian vote" is driven by the same economic anxieties as any other New Yorker.

Early data shows a massive spike in turnout among South Asian and Indo-Caribbean voters, proving that when the community sees one of their own fighting for their specific needs, they show up at the ballot box.

Mamdani's socialist principles ran counter to establishment politics and his governance is seen as a test case for whether the left can successfully implement large-scale socialist policies in a major American city.

His ambitious platform catering to the working class includes free public transit, universal childcare, rent freezes, and increased minimum wage, funded by higher taxes on corporations and the rich.

The "sleeping giant" is officially in charge. Now, the real work begins.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news, views and chismis from an AANHPI perspective, follow me on Threads, on X, BlueSky or at the blog Views From the Edge.