The U.S. Constitution holds that everyone born in a state is a U.S. citizen. The Supreme Court confirmed this in a landmark case in 1898, the same year Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States.
In 1917, the federal government passed a law declaring that anyone born in Puerto Rico is also a citizen of the United States. The citizenship of Puerto Ricans rests on that law, not on the Constitution, and is therefore statutory rather than constitutional citizenship. It is still birthright citizenship — that is, citizenship conferred automatically upon birth in the United States.
Constitutional vs. Statutory Citizenship in Puerto Rico
The Supreme Court case
The Supreme Court ruled in 1898, in the case of Wong Kim Ark vs. United States, that anyone born in any state of the United States is a U.S. citizen, regardless of the citizenship or nationality of their parents.
Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco of Chinese parents. Coming home from a visit to China, he was denied entry to the United States “Because the said Wong Kim Ark has been at all times, by reason of his race, language, color, and dress, a Chinese person.” His case went to the Supreme Court, which affirmed that, having been born in the United States, Wong Kim Ark was in fact an American person.
In 2025, President Trump published an executive order saying that children born in the United States are only citizens if at least one of their parents is a citizen, a permanent resident, or a member of the U.S. military on active duty. 22 of the states sued, along with a number of organizations, and the case has recently reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, the case does not determine whether or not birthright citizenship will be upheld. It focuses instead on whether courts can keep the federal government from taking actions until the legality of those actions has been determined by the courts. The administration wants the Supreme Court to forbid lower courts to make “universal injunctions” — that is, rulings blocking the implementation of a law across the country rather than in a specific case.
The justices as well as the lawyers arguing against the administration remarked that the administration is focusing on the question of universal injunctions rather than on birthright citizenship itself
As The Economist points out, a decision in favor of the administration could also affect the numerous other cases of the same type currently working their way through the courts.
Consequences for Puerto Rico
Since the case before the Supreme Court does not ask for a decision on birthright citizenship, the consequences we’ve considered for that question will not be decided by this case. However, if implementation of the executive order is allowed to go ahead, Puerto Ricans could be affected.
If some states implement the executive order, those changes could weaken the assumption of birthright citizenship, regardless of the eventual outcome of the legal challenges. Puerto Rico’s birthright citizenship is by its nature already weaker than constitutional birthright citizenship.
Trump on Birthright Citizenship: How Will Puerto Ricans Be Impacted?
For example, one of the scenarios discussed in the arguments before the Supreme Court is the case of newborn babies. Should the hospital where an infant is born be required to determine whether the parents are legal residents before helping parents with the child’s birth certificate? Puerto Ricans continue to face uninformed rejections of their legal documents in the states. Could their children end up stateless if hospital staff don’t recognize their citizenship?
U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer admitted that there are currently no plans for dealing with the plight of newborns in hospitals under the executive order. Whatever process they come up with, it could be a financial and practical burden in Puerto Rico, where the health care system is already overburdened and fragile.
It is difficult to predict the outcome of either the current Supreme Court case or the legal challenges of the executive order, but they may weaken birthright citizenship as an American principle. Evolving changes in attitude about U.S. citizenship may be relevant when predicting the likelihood of U.S. citizenship for Puerto Ricans under any political status besides statehood.
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