The U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship last week, but refugee advocates say it's still difficult for children with immigrant parents to access equal rights.
Zain Lakhani, director of migrant rights and justice for the Women’s Refugee Commission, said citizenship is supposed to be universal, but isn't applied that way in the United States.
She pointed to regulations limiting access to public housing and other benefits for mixed-status families. Those households also lost eligibility for the federal Child Tax Credit last year.
“This is a way in which you do not get those vital life-sustaining benefits to which you are entitled to as a U.S. citizen because one of your parents is an immigrant,” Lakhani explained.
Republican lawmakers argued restricting access to the child tax credit was necessary to stop incentivizing illegal immigration.
About five million people born in the United States live in a mixed-status household, according to the American Immigration Council. Lakhani said they do not experience the same citizenship rights as their peers with U.S. citizen parents.
Lakhani also said parents are being deported without the chance to arrange legal caretakers for their children, despite U.S. policy requiring it.
That leaves some U.S. citizen children in the care of people who cannot line up essential services, enroll them in school, obtain health care, or secure passports for family reunification.
“These children, they have legal rights as citizens to all of these benefits, but they are not able to access them because their parent was deported without being able to assign them a legal guardian,” Lakhani said.
Almost 55,000 U.S. citizen children live with at least one undocumented family member, according to the American Immigrant Council.
Utah was one of 23 states that formally supported President Trump's executive order meant to end birthright citizenship.
The nation's top court struck down that order in a 6-3 decision, ruling anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, with very limited exceptions.
