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WASHINGTON (CN) — U.S. Catholic bishops made an appeal to the Supreme Court on Thursday, urging the justices to “protect God-given human dignity” by striking down President Donald Trump’s “immoral” executive order on birthright citizenship.
“Children do nothing wrong by being born in the United States,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in an amicus brief. “Yet, this executive order renders them stateless. Depriving an innocent child of his citizenship based upon his parents’ immigration status would be an especially outrageous punishment — one that this court has rejected as punishment even for people who have been proven guilty.”
The bishops’ impassioned plea comes just over a month before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments over the administration’s proposed limits on citizenship rights. Citing scripture, the Constitution and Western tradition, they argued the order would undermine both the legal and moral foundations of American society.
“At its core, this case is not solely a question about citizenship status or the Fourteenth Amendment,” the bishops wrote. “It is a question of whether the law will affirm or deny the equal worth of those born within our common community — whether the law will protect the human dignity of all God’s children.”
Six of the nine justices — Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — are Catholic. Justice Neil Gorsuch was raised Catholic but now identifies as Episcopalian. Justice Elena Kagan is Jewish, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is nondenominational Protestant.
In a day-one executive order, Trump declared the children of individuals who do not have legal status or who possess temporary legal status would be excluded from the “priceless and profound gift” of United States citizenship. The White House said the new limits were justified because immigrants without legal status and foreigners participating in “birth tourism” had degraded the meaning and value of American citizenship.
The bishops said sovereign nations had legitimate authority to regulate immigration, but they argued those nations also have a duty to protect the dignity of every human person.
Six pages of the bishops’ brief detail various arguments for why Trump’s order was immoral. The bishops said it prevented people from exercising agency and participating in community to the detriment of the nation, discouraged people from participating in Church life and seeking spiritual guidance, and harmed the most vulnerable people in society.
Immigrants are too often vilified in rhetoric concerning immigration policy, the bishops said, noting that generations of immigrants have overcome prejudices to make enormous contributions to the nation.
“Migrants often flee war and persecution seeking a better life for their families,” the bishops wrote. “It is critical that we treat our suffering neighbors not with indifference, apathy, or bias, but instead with the same type of mercy as depicted in the story of the Good Samaritan, whose love transcended the most strident ethnic division of that day.”
The bishops worried that Trump’s order would render the children of migrants stateless, leaving them without legal protection or access to basic services. Stateless children, the bishops said, would be forced to choose between forever being an underclass citizen or migrating to a country they have never known and in which they may not be welcome.
“As Catholics, our faith compels us to protest laws that deny the dignity of the human person and harm innocent children, particularly when such laws resurrect the very injustices the 14th Amendment was enacted to repudiate,” the bishops wrote.
Pope Leo XIV, the first American leader of the Catholic Church, has rebuked the Trump administration’s immigration policies, criticizing its treatment of migrants. Despite a hand-delivered invitation from Vice President JD Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, the Vatican announced that Leo would not visit the United States this year.
On the nation’s 250th birthday, Leo plans to visit Lampedusa, a small Italian island that served as a gateway for migrants and refugees traveling to Europe from Africa and the Middle East, according to the Vatican.
Trump identifies as a Christian.
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