US Supreme Court begins hearing on citizenship right, with unprecedented presence of Trump

BarcelonaThe Supreme Court of the United States began proceedings this Tuesday to determine the legality of Donald Trump's executive order to limit birthright citizenship, after ruling in favor of lifting the blocks imposed by lower courts on this controversial policy. In an unprecedented gesture, Trump attended the hearing, thus becoming the first active president to be present at a Supreme Court trial, an act interpreted as a show of pressure on the magistrates.

The Supreme Court's decision involves reviewing a right enshrined in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which since the 19th century has guaranteed U.S. citizenship to all persons born in the territory, a principle that Trump seeks to deny to children of undocumented parents or those with temporary visas. The president signed an order to eliminate this right on the first day of his second term, but the rule has not been applied because it has been blocked by various lower courts.

The president cannot modify the nature of American citizenship because it is regulated by the Constitution, specifically by the 14th Amendment, which states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States are citizens.” The amendment was ratified in 1868 after the Civil War that ended slavery in the United States and overturned a Supreme Court decision that had declared that people of African descent could never be American citizens. To nullify this right, Trump has two possible paths: a Supreme Court decision or an amendment to the Constitution, something that requires a supermajority that Republicans do not have in Congress.

Trump, wearing a red tie and a dark suit, sat in the front row of the public gallery of the courtroom, according to media present in the court. Some of the judges, including the Chief Justice, the conservative John Roberts, questioned the Department of Justice lawyer who defended the measure, John Sauer. The US Solicitor General opened the arguments by stating that "birthright citizenship without restrictions contradicts the practice of the vast majority of modern nations," as published by Reuters. And he added: "It operates as a powerful magnet for illegal immigration and rewards illegal aliens who violate immigration laws."

The court, which has a conservative majority of 6 to 3, has supported Trump on other immigration-related policies since he returned to the presidency last year. According to some estimates, a potential Supreme Court ruling upholding the administration's opinion could affect the legal status of up to 250,000 babies born each year in the US.