US birthright citizenship ruling eases fears among Indians
The recent US Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship has eased concerns and reduced uncertainty for Indian families living in the United States. The US
The recent US Supreme Court ruling on birthright citizenship has eased concerns and reduced uncertainty for Indian families living in the United States. The US Supreme Court's recent decision to leave birthright citizenship intact offers relief to thousands of Indian families, even as the political battle over who deserves to be American is far from over. When the top court's ruling came through on June 30, Rajesh and Neha, an Indian couple living in Seattle, read the news over breakfast before leaving for work. Rajesh, a software engineer, moved to the US from the southern Indian city of Bengaluru in 2016 on an H-1B visa. Neha joined him a year later. Their si year-old daughter, Aanya, was born in the United States. "It was a relief," Neha told DW. "For months, we kept wondering if something so fundamental could really change." Their daughter remains an American citizen. But for her parents, little else has changed. Like thousands of Indian professionals in the US, they are still waiting for employment-based green cards after years in the queue. "We're happy our daughter's future is protected," said Rajesh. "But we're still living one visa renewal at a time." US Supreme Court has become too ideological, critics claim To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A sigh of relief The US Supreme Court at the end of June left birthright citizenship intact, ruling that children born on US soil remain citizens regardless of their parents' immigration status. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year decreeing that children born to parents in the United States illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become US citizens. That order now remains blocked and under legal challenge. "The ruling is a profound affirmation of who belongs in America," said Chintan Patel, executive director of Indian American Impact, a civic and political advocacy organization.
"Indian and South Asian immigrant families are among those most directly threatened by Trump's executive order, communities navigating long visa backlogs and uncertain immigration timelines, where children are often born here long before their parents have a clear path to permanence," said Patel in a statement. Indians are the second-largest Asian-origin group in the US after Chinese Americans, according to a May 2025 Pew Research Center fact sheet. About 5.2 million people of Indian origin lived in the US in 2023, roughly 21% of the country's population of Asian origin. Indians are the largest recipients of H-1B visas, the program that lets US companies hire skilled foreign workers. They also face the longest waits for employment-based green cards, because of per country caps. Community organizations estimate that hundreds of thousands of children have been born in the US to Indian parents on temporary work visas. The court ruling now preserves their citizenship, along with the rights that come with it, including US passports and social security numbers. Why many Asian Americans are turning right To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Life in immigration limbo For many Indian professionals, the ruling addresses only one part of a much larger problem. Employment-based green cards are subject to annual country quotas, creating an enormous backlog for Indian applicants. Various estimates suggest well over a million Indians are waiting for permanent residency, some for decades. Workers hesitate to change employers, afraid of disrupting their status. Spouses can face restrictions on employment. Children who came in as dependents can lose their legal status when they turn 21, if their parents have not yet secured permanent residency, a problem known as aging out. Against that backdrop, birthright citizenship has remained one of the few certainties families could count on. "The ruling reinforces the longstanding constitutional principle that anyone born in the US is a citizen, irrespective of their parents' immigration status," Rajkrishna S Iyer, a US immigration attorney specializing in employment and family-based immigration, told DW.
The BriefWire