NEA Defends Birthright Protections from the Trump Administration

Public education in the U.S. rests on a core belief: Children born in this country belong to it. That principle comes directly from the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which declares that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

However, in January 2025, hours after President Donald Trump was sworn in to office, he signed an executive order to strip birthright citizenship from children born in the U.S. to parents who lack permanent immigration status. Since then, multiple lawsuits were filed challenging the executive order attempting to terminate birthright citizenship and politicians who have revived calls to reinterpret or weaken birthright citizenship. 

One of the cases brought against the executive order, Trump v. Barbara, will soon come to the nation’s highest court. On April 1, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case challenging the legality of birthright citizenship this term, with a decision expected later this summer before the Court adjourns.

Some MAGA politicians frame the issue as an immigration policy dispute. But for NEA members (educators like you), it’s something more profound. Birthright citizenship is deeply intertwined with the mission of public education as a gateway of opportunity for all children.

“Because of birthright citizenship, children of immigrants are able to pursue their dreams and contribute to our country,” says NEA counsel Lubna Alam. “The loss of this fundamental right would result in millions of U.S. born children being unable to fully participate in American life.”

 Unions Unite for Citizenship

Earlier this year, NEA joined SIEU (Service Employees International Union) and AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations), along with 17 other labor organizations, in filing an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case supporting birthright citizenship.

The unions argue that the guarantee of citizenship has allowed generations of children born in the U.S., including those whose parents immigrated, to grow up and contribute to the country as teachers, doctors, caregivers, and public servants.

Take J.M., for example, an NEA member born in the U.S. to immigrant parents who grew up attending public schools. Because she was recognized as a U.S. citizen from birth, J.M. was able to move through the education system with the same legal standing as her classmates.

She enrolled in college—becoming a first-generation college graduate—and the first in her extended family to receive a doctoral degree, earning scholarships and fellowships. Since she was a U.S. citizen, J.M. was able to pay in-state tuition at Florida public universities. 

The brief states that if she had been charged out-of-state tuition, J.M. may not have been able to afford to continue her education and obtain the required credentials for her chosen field in higher education.

J.M.’s story reflects the lived experiences of countless of other U.S. citizens, born to immigrant parents, who go on to lead successful lives and keep local economies going.

A Constitutional Promise 

The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War. Its authors sought to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1857 decision in Dred Scott v Sandford, which held that Black Americans could not be U.S. citizens.

The amendment established a clear rule that anyone born on U.S. soil would be a citizen, regardless of race or ancestry. The provision guaranteed citizenship to formerly enslaved people and ensured that states could not strip individuals of membership in the nation.

The framers of the amendment understood that citizenship was the foundation of democratic participation. It determined who could claim rights, protections, and belonging within U.S. institutions.

Public schools are often where young people first experience what it means to be part of a democracy. In classrooms, students learn about constitutional rights, civic participation, and the responsibilities of citizenship.

Schools as Democratic Institutions

Public education has long been viewed as the cornerstone of democracy by preparing citizens for participation in civil life. Today, that role remains central. 

“Public schools are one of the first civic spaces our children enter, and it is up to you to purposefully teach the principles of democracy,” Stephanie Serriere, a professor of social studies education at Indiana University Columbus, tells her classes of future educators. 

That teaching, she told NEA Today, should begin in kindergarten. 

Serriere developed her idea of “carpet-time democracy” while teaching elementary school, after noticing young students’ natural concern for fairness and equity.

One simple approach is allowing students to help create classroom rules. In doing so, Serriere said, they become “tiny framers” of a shared document that guides their classroom community.

Older students can take the process further by identifying issues they want to change and investigation solutions by polling classmates, gathering research, and advocating for improvements.

What Schools Could Face

NEA warns that ending birthright citizenship could have ripple effects inside classrooms for generations to come. 

“Educators, students and their families already are feeling the harmful effects of the Trump administration’s ICE actions in and around public schools and communities,” says Alam. “Students stayed home and logged in for virtual schooling during the ICE surge in Minneapolis this winter. Some stopped attending school altogether. And we are already seeing the behavioral and mental impact of these enforcement actions   on our students. This undermines the professional and moral responsibilities of educators to keep students safe.” 

Educators have already documented how immigration-related fears can discourage families from engaging with schools and other public services.

Agustín Loredo, a longtime teacher and head soccer and cross-country coach in Baytown, Texas, told NEA Today about a student who told him quietly one day, “I live with my dad’s friend. I just put him down as an uncle.”

His father had been deported. His mother was in Honduras. The student was working full-time while trying to stay in school.

But toward the end of the 2024 – 2025 school year, the student stopped coming.

“It broke my heart,” Loredo says.

Educators like Loredo worry that creating legal uncertainty for children born in the U.S. would deepen those challenges.

Public Schools Build the Nation’s Citizens

Public schools do more than teach math and reading. They help prepare the next generation of citizens. Students learn about democracy, debate national issues, and imagine the roles they might one day play in their community. It’s for these reasons, and more, that NEA fully defends birthright citizenship so that the students receiving that education can fully participate in the civic life they are being taught to value.