Birthright Citizenship is Part of Black History

Birthright citizenship is often framed as solely an immigration issue, but that framing is incomplete and dangerously misleading. It is a constitutional promise born out of the nation’s attempt to reckon with slavery, racial exclusion, and the denial of Black people’s belonging in America. The recent attacks on this fundamental pillar of racial justice are not just anti-immigrant; they are an assault on one of the most important legal safeguards Black Americans have ever won.

This is the cornerstone of why President Donald Trump wants birthright citizenship gone. His political career began on the very loud and wrong “birther” conspiracy about our first Black president, Barack Hussein Obama. Once in office, Trump continued to spread misconceptions and fear by repeatedly calling for an end to birthright citizenship. These efforts echo a long tradition of using citizenship as a gatekeeping tool—one that has always harmed Black people first and worst. To advance his agenda and shield his intentions, Trump relies on racist tropes about “anchor babies” and so-called invasions, deliberately severing this constitutional right from Black history and pretending that citizenship debates exist in a vacuum, detached from the racial injustices that shaped the Constitution itself.

They do not—and never have.

For Black Americans, this issue is not academic. It is deeply personal. It is a reminder of a time when being born on this soil was not enough to guarantee safety, dignity, or rights.

The Supreme Court cemented the exclusion of those rights in its Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which nationalized slavery and declared that Black people could never be citizens, despite building the groundwork that made this country prosper. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified to repudiate that logic. It established that all persons born in the United States are citizens, an absolute promise that the government could not pick and choose which children deserved to belong.

Trump and his advisors now assert that only children of U.S. citizens, and maybe legal permanent residents, should automatically be considered citizens, leaving everyone else out. On January 20, 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14160 attempting to revoke birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants and certain visa holders. Immigrants’ rights groups and civil rights organizations quickly challenged the EO as unconstitutional. Most recently, the Supreme Court consolidated appeals in four of these major cases — Trump v. Barbara, Trump v. CASA, Trump v. Washington and Trump v. New Jersey —with rulings anticipated later this year.

Trump’s warped interpretation of what it means to be American has tangible harms that will reverberate throughout this country. Ending birthright citizenship would immediately endanger Black communities with immigrant histories, including Somali refugee families in Minnesota, Haitian parolees in Springfield and Venezuelan migrants in South Miami who already face fear, isolation, and marginalization from xenophobic racism.

Targeting immigrants has an intentional domino effect that seeks to weaken the rights of all Americans. History shows that when citizenship becomes conditional, Black Americans are still forced to prove their legitimacy. In the last year alone, we have already seen U.S. citizens detained or deported because immigration authorities refused to believe their papers were “real,” echoing a time when freed slaves had to show their “freedom papers” to prove their legal liberty. Ending birthright citizenship would only accelerate this trend.

As we reflect on Black history and continue to work toward a more inclusive American future, we must be clear-eyed about what is happening now. Attacks on birthright citizenship are not new, and they are not neutral. They are part of a broader effort to roll back the gains of Reconstruction and reassert a narrow, exclusionary definition of American identity that only protects wealthy white men. (Recall that the first iteration of guaranteed citizenship excluded white men that did not own land.)

Defending birthright citizenship honors the constitutional promise made to Black people after slavery, which is that those who were born in this country have the right to claim it as their own. That promise must be safeguarded at all costs.

Otherwise, history shows that when the government is empowered to question the belonging of one group, that power will grow. It expands outward, testing the limits of who else can be excluded. What begins with immigrants doesn’t end there; it reaches naturalized citizens and U.S.-born children. Eventually, everyone’s right to belong will be vulnerable to political, racial, or economic question.

This is where the fight must expand, too. This moment calls for collective action from all Americans, because this threat is not just against immigration — it is a threat to the meaning of citizenship altogether. For Black Americans whose families have been here for generations, this fight is especially ours. Immigration policy has always been a tool for defining who counts as American, and when those definitions narrow, Black citizenship is placed at risk.

We must stand united with immigrant communities. United action means educating our friends and neighbors, challenging harmful narratives, and supporting policies and organizations committed to preserving the constitutional guarantee that if you were born here, you belong. That promise is foundational to our democracy, and once it is weakened for some, it is weakened for all.