Washington, D.C. In one of the most significant
immigration-related legal decisions in recent years, the US Supreme Court
reaffirmed the principle of birthright citizenship, ruling by a narrow 5-4 vote
that children of undocumented immigrants born on US soil retain the right to
automatic citizenship.
With this ruling, the highest court confirmed the validity
of the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which
establishes that every person born in the United States and subject to its
jurisdiction is a citizen of the country, regardless of their parents'
immigration status, with a few exceptions provided by law.
The narrow majority of five justices argued that modifying
this fundamental right would require far-reaching legal and constitutional
changes, while the four dissenting justices argued a different interpretation
of the Fourteenth Amendment's scope.