'The fear ends today': Immigrant advocacy groups on Long Island and beyond hail birthright ruling

Immigrant advocates across Long Island celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday to uphold birthright citizenship as a victory not only for immigrant families but for American democracy.

The Trump administration, through executive order in January last year, sought to repeal birthright citizenship to children born to certain noncitizens to eliminate an incentive for immigrants illegally entering the country. Several lower courts had blocked the restriction before the nation's highest court weighed in with a 6-3 decision.

The court's majority ruled the executive order violated the 14th Amendment.

Minerva Perez, executive director of OLA of Eastern Long Island, a Latino advocacy group that works closely with youth in East End communities and provides scholarships to students who will go on to pursue a variety of careers, said the pending birthright citizenship decision has been a “nonstop” conversation among community members.

“Thank God that this prevailed,” she said in an interview shortly after the decision was announced. “It’s foundational to our country. It is literally our DNA and it’s the right decision.”

Sister Janet Kinney, director of the Long Island Immigration Clinic based in Brentwood, said when she heard the news Tuesday morning, she felt “great joy” after many months of living with uncertainty.

“For so many on Long Island and across the country, this has really destabilized families,” she said.

She said it’s been “excruciating” for the immigrant population she serves.

“Many people who come to our clinic have applied for asylum and it might take years to get their case heard," she said. "Meanwhile, you might have given birth and there’s a fear that while this is the only country that child has known, they would have to migrate to a country they do not know and where they might not be welcome."

Oscar Michelen, past president of the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association and a civil rights attorney, said there’s “a big sigh of relief” in immigrant communities who have been worried about whether their American-born children would be retroactively denied their rights.

“It gives peace to folks who had long understood that the children they bore here were American citizens. It takes away the fear that somehow that right and that privilege was going to be taken away from them — and I might add by executive order and not an act of Congress,” said Michelen, who has several clients’ seeking asylum with children and some who are expecting.

He said the “drawback” is that the decision was not unanimous and that one-third of the judges believe that it’s possible to “reshape established law.”

Research from the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute last year found that if the restrictive policy was enacted, an average of about 255,000 children born on U.S. soil each year would be denied citizenship.

The effect would be creating “a self-perpetuating, multigenerational underclass,” the research said.

James Sample, constitutional law professor from the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, said the ruling affirms the law is the same as it has been since 1868 and then again when it was affirmed by the Supreme Court in 1898.

"The president has no role to play in any of the processes related to the constitutional amendment process and much less a role to play acting on his own," he said. "You cannot rewrite the 14th Amendment by executive order."

Ed Kubik, a Lynbrook resident and member of Pax Christi, a Catholic peace group, said the Supreme Court ruling was “absolutely the right decision.”

“Anybody who's born in this country is a citizen and should be welcomed and taken care of and helped to grow and thrive,” Kubik said. He called Trump’s effort to throw out birthright citizenship part of an “effort to demonize, to some degree, immigrants and migrants.”

Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that birthright citizenship “has been one of the clearest expressions of our American values” by guaranteeing everyone born in the country equal protection under the law.

She vowed the NYCLU will continue fighting for immigrant rights.

“While we can all breathe a little easier today, we know the Trump administration will keep trying to redefine citizenship and strip away everyone’s civil rights,” she said.

Yaritza Mendez, deputy director for the advocacy group Make the Road New York, said in a statement birthright citizenship has "allowed the descendants of immigrants to put down roots and build loving families and vibrant communities."

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national organization based in New York, praised the decision for upholding the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, according to a statement from Bethany Li, the organization’s executive director.

“For the families this order targeted, the fear ends today: Their children keep their place in the only country they have ever called home,” Li said.

Newsday's Bart Jones contributed to this story.