Supreme Court Limits Nationwide Injunctions, Narrowing Protections Against Birthright Citizenship Order

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 27, 2025

Contact: Timothy Young | our email

Baltimore, M.D. —Global Refuge expresses deep concern over the impact on immigrant families of today’s Supreme Court decision, which restricts the ability of lower federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions, effectively narrowing protections against an executive order that seeks to curtail birthright citizenship.

“Today’s ruling opens the door to a dangerous patchwork of rights in this country, where a child’s citizenship may now depend on the judicial district in which they’re born,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge. “This is a deeply troubling moment not only for immigrant families, but for the legal uniformity that underpins our Constitution.”

The decision stems from the Trump administration’s Executive Order 14160, which attempts to restrict automatic U.S. citizenship for children born on American soil to certain immigrant parents. While multiple lower courts had issued injunctions blocking the order from being enforced nationwide, the Supreme Court’s ruling limits those injunctions to apply only to the named plaintiffs in each case, potentially leaving countless families exposed to legal uncertainty and statelessness. Importantly, today’s ruling does not decide whether President Trump’s executive order itself is constitutional – a question that remains before the lower courts.

“Birthright citizenship has been settled constitutional law for more than a century. By denying lower courts the ability to enforce that right uniformly, the Court has invited chaos, inequality, and fear,” Vignarajah continued. “This doesn’t just disrupt lives. It undermines the very idea that the law should apply equally to all.”

Global Refuge, one of the nation’s largest resettlement and immigration services organizations, works with immigrant and refugee families across the country, many of whom will now face differing legal realities depending on geography.

“We have already heard concern from families who are unsure whether their U.S.-born children will be recognized as citizens, and who fear what might come next,” said Vignarajah. “This fractured approach is unworkable, unjust, and out of step with our values as a nation.”

Global Refuge will continue to monitor the legal and policy landscape, advocate for federal protections that apply equally to all, and support the rights and dignity of every child born in the United States.

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