South Asians Rally Outside Supreme Court Over Birthright Citizenship Case

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – The South Asian American Justice Collaborative (SAAJCO) on April 1, joined hundreds of community members, advocates, and partners outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the Justices heard oral arguments in the birthright citizenship case.

“The energy today was powerful,” said Chirag Shah, Program Manager at SAAJCO. “People showed up because this is about something fundamental. It’s about recognizing that when one community is impacted, we all are, and that’s why we organize together.”

SAAJCO also submitted an amicus brief in the case, highlighting the long history of South Asian communities in the United States and pushing back on the notion that South Asians are “forever foreign.” The brief outlines the harms communities would face if the executive order is upheld.

“Two things stood out today. Justice Sotomayor rightly raised the denaturalization of South Asians after Thind and whether changes to birthright citizenship could be applied retroactively. Reading new conditions into the Fourteenth Amendment is already deeply concerning. While the government offered assurances about limiting its scope, those limits may not hold over time. This administration has not thought through how far-reaching the implications are,” said Kalpana V. Peddibhotla, Executive Director of SAAJCO.

“Second, the government relied on the idea of ‘temporary visitors’ to argue that birthright citizenship should turn on domicile. That directly implicates families who have lived here for years or decades on H-1B visas, in asylum, and in other statuses due to green card backlogs.”

“The Court raised concerns about the administrative burdens that would ensue if this Order is upheld. For South Asians, the second largest growing immigrant demographic, that means many babies would be denied citizenship at birth,” said Anisa Rahim, Legal Director of SAAJCO. “Many South Asian countries will not automatically confer citizenship on those babies affected by the Order, rendering them stateless.”

The Southern California based South Asian Network also joined community organizations from across the country. As an Amicus curiae of SAAJCO

and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Shakeel Syed, Executive Director said, “South Asian Americans together with Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have for generations defended constitutional principles and are proud of the contributions

made by our communities and making the mosaic of America even more richer.”