Expectant mom seeking political asylum in U.S. urges protection of birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — An asylum-seeker in the U.S. from Cuba told OSV News that she is spending the final part of her pregnancy on bedrest amid anxiety about her unborn child’s future due to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump that would bar her child from U.S. citizenship.

Speaking to OSV News through a translator, the expectant mother, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Barbara, said she and her family fled Cuba as they were facing political persecution from Communist Party officials due to their Christian beliefs. The U.S. State Department acknowledges religious persecution in Cuba, which can include arrests, surveillance and abuse.

“Because I would not join their political party, my family started suffering political persecution,” Barbara said. “We didn’t want to be part of the political party, and our religious beliefs were against what the political party believed.”

As of June 6, when OSV News spoke with Barbara, the U.S. Supreme Court had yet to issue a ruling in a combined case regarding the Trump administration’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents without legal status or temporary visa holders, and whether federal judges could properly block that order.

Although the three combined cases heard by the high court May 15 stem from an executive order Trump signed within hours of returning to the Oval Office in January seeking to end the practice of birthright citizenship for these children, the scope of its ruling will likely center on the Trump administration’s contention that federal judges improperly blocked the order despite arguments it unlawfully violated the 14th Amendment rather than on the merit of the order itself.

During oral arguments in May, although some of the justices from the court’s perceived conservative ideological wing appeared concerned about nationwide injunctions issued by lower court judges, justices more broadly appeared skeptical of Trump’s ability to effectively rewrite the long-standing legal interpretation of birthright citizenship by executive order.

Conchita Cruz, co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, or ASAP, one of the organizations challenging Trump’s order in court, expressed concern that if the order were implemented, children of their members would be left stateless.

“Our members were concerned that their kids would not have U.S. citizenship, and then, because our members are asylum-seekers, many are afraid to register their children as citizens of the country they fled from, and where the government has persecuted them,” Cruz told OSV News.

Barbara, whose green card application remains pending, said, “When we decided to apply for political asylum, we knew that there would be a lot of uncertainty, but we still felt very secure.”

But once the executive order was signed, Barbara said, she became anxious as “it would be horrible for my baby.”

“It would be like stealing his future, the future that we came to the United States to seek,” she said.

The 14th Amendment states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” that a birth on U.S. soil constitutes citizenship. However, the Trump administration has argued the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” gives them the authority to curb the practice, which would upend long-standing legal interpretation.

During oral arguments in May, D. John Sauer, the solicitor general, argued that long-standing legal interpretation of the 14th Amendment was effectively incorrect, arguing it “guaranteed citizenship to the children of former slaves, not to illegal aliens or temporary visitors.”

But opponents of the order said that reinterpretation of the amendment was incorrect.

“Our members are afraid — if the government can reinterpret the Constitution, there are a wide range of implications,” Cruz said, such as, “What does this mean for due process? What does it mean for the rights enshrined in the Constitution for people — regardless of their immigration status? And so this is also a fight about protecting the Constitution, and the rights of all people that live in the U.S.”

Asked what message she had for Trump or members of his administration about the impact of the order, Barbara said, “I want them to be able to open their hearts to not see immigrants as a number, to not think that because there are some people that have done bad things, that all of us are the same.”

“Immigrants are people full of dreams, people seeking liberty,” she said. “We’re people seeking a secure future. In our case, it’s not been easy to leave our families, to leave our homes, to leave our professions and start from zero, and I want to ask with all my heart to be given an opportunity so that they can see us as people, so that they could listen to our hopes and our dreams, and to not see us as numbers, to see us as humans, so that we can so that they can hear our cases, and so that we can win our cases and be able to contribute to the U.S. society.”

Cruz said she is concerned that the stress surrounding the order could adversely impact the health of pregnant women and their unborn children.

“I think about our members, pregnant women, who after the executive order was announced, suddenly were suffering from extreme stress, anxiety and high blood pressure, some have had their babies early, and continue to worry about their children’s future,” she said. “Stress during pregnancy impacts maternal health, but it can also impact a child’s health for the rest of their lives. Not to mention how important early childhood is, including the first few months of a child’s life.”

Barbara said, “Babies are a blessing.”

“They’re the future of any society,” she said. “And to guarantee the rights of these babies is to guarantee the future of a society.”

Barbara said she sought political asylum “in the name of liberty” and urged that “our babies rights to be respected.”

“It would be great for my baby and other babies’ rights offered by the Constitution to be respected,” she said.

A decision on whether the executive order can be implemented while legal challenges to it proceed is expected before the end of the high court’s term, which typically ends in June.

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