The nation's highest court has decided to review legal challenge disputing automatic citizenship for those born in the US.
The top court has will hear a landmark case that challenges a historic guarantee: guaranteed citizenship for people born within US borders.
On the inaugural day in office this winter, the administration signed an order aiming to end the policy, but the move was struck down by lower courts after lawsuits were initiated.
The Supreme Court's ultimate decision will either uphold citizenship rights for the infants of migrants who are in the US illegally or on temporary visas, or it will end them completely.
Next, the judges will set a time to hear the case between the government and the suing parties, which comprise parents who are immigrants and their infants.
A Constitutional Cornerstone
For more than 150 years, the 14th Amendment has enshrined the rule that anyone born in the United States is a citizen, with certain exclusions for children born to embassy personnel and members of invading forces.
"Anyone born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States."
The challenged directive sought to refuse citizenship to the offspring of people who are either in the US without legal status or are in the country on short-term status.
The United States belongs to a group of about a minority of states – largely in the Americas – that grant immediate citizenship to all those born within their borders.
