Pregnant visa holders anxious over Trump’s birthright order

If the Trump administration had its way, babies born on U.S. soil from this point forward would no longer receive automatic birthright citizenship.

Yesterday marked 30 days since President Donald Trump signed an executive order to unilaterally redefine the Constitution and federal law by denying citizenship to children born in the U.S. if their parents are “unlawfully” present or have “lawful but temporary” status in the country, News.Az reports citing The Independent.

That meant that in addition to those seeking asylum, families with visas who have been living and working in the U.S. legally for years also found themselves trapped in uncertain territory — particularly those who are expecting a child imminently.

Among those affected are highly skilled immigrants on H-1B visas typically working in tech, healthcare, engineering, and finance.

The visas were at the center of a MAGA feud that split the American political right.

“With the recent executive order from President Trump, we are feeling increasingly anxious,” Ganesh, a 37-year-old software engineer from India whose wife is due to give birth to their second child in April, told The Independent. Ganesh is a pseudonym given for privacy concerns, as are the other names of people quoted in this story who are impacted by this policy.

“After doing everything that is being asked, you do everything correctly, follow the law, follow the rule of land. But still, we are stuck. We are stuck in this limbo.”

The families now face an anxious wait for the courts to weigh in following fierce resistance to the administration’s bid to curtail automatic birthright citizenship. For the first time, an appellate court stepped in on the issue and denied Trump’s bid Wednesday night following a move to block the executive order by four judges. One argued in a ruling that, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, “he is not a king and he cannot rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen.”

The Trump administration also faces at least 10 lawsuits from pregnant women, civil rights groups, and officials from across the country.

News.Az