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IMMIGRATION APRIL 17, 2026 | The Indian Eye 37

child could acquire a nonimmigrant retroactively apply the order would the intent of the Framers of the Four- Ark? It creates a multigenerational
status from birth. Parents might be have unthinkable consequences. In- teenth Amendment. problem. If X was never a citizen at
forced to scramble and file immigra- deed, many supporters of the Trump If Trump’s Executive Order is up- birth, then was X able to transmit cit-
tion applications immediately follow- administration might find their US held it not just creates a permanent izenship to Y?
ing a child’s birth to ensure that they citizenship being thrown into ques- subclass of people born in the US in Trump and his supporters aim
are not out of status. Because birth in tion if their parent was not lawfully the future but the destabilization of for mass deportations. This fantasy
the United States would no longer be present in the US or were on a tem- citizenship itself across generations. would be realized well beyond their
sufficient to confer citizenship, even porary visa. And if these concepts If the constitutional meaning of cit- wildest dreams if they too get deport-
U.S. citizen parents might be forced did not exist before the mid-20th cen- izenship can be redefined after 150 ed through the destabilization of citi-
to provide exhaustive proof of legal tury, Americans would have to prove years, what happens to all citizenship zenship across generations!
status to ensure that citizenship was that their parents or their ancestors claims derived through parents and
also extended to their children. These were domiciled in the US, as D. John grandparents and even beyond who *Kaitlyn Box is a Partner at Cyrus D.
scenarios are analyzed in greater de- Sauer argued for the government was relied on United States v. Wong Kim Mehta & Partners PLLC.
tail in a prior blog. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Moreover, there is a potential for
the executive order to eventually be Cyrus D. Mehta, a graduate of Cambridge University and Columbia Law School, is the Managing Partner of Cyrus D. Mehta
expanded and applied retroactively & Partners PLLC in New York City. Mr. Mehta is a member of AILA’s Administrative Litigation Task Force; AILA’s EB-5 Com-
as well. Justice Sotomayor noted that mittee; former chair of AILA’s Ethics Committee; special counsel on immigration matters to the Departmental Disciplinary
when the Supreme Court ruled that
“Indians could not become citizens”, Committee, Appellate Division, First Department, New York; member of the ABA Commission on Immigration; board member
the federal government undertook of Volunteers for Legal Services and board member of New York Immigration Coalition. Mr. Mehta is the former chair of the
efforts to de-naturalize even individu- Board of Trustees of the American Immigration Council and former chair of the Committee on Immigration and Nationality
als who had already become citizens.
D. John Sauer, the lawyer for the Law of the New York City Bar Association. He is a frequent speaker and writer on various immigration-related issues, including
Trump administration, emphasized on ethics, and is also an adjunct professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, where he teaches a course entitled Immigration and
that the administration sought only Work. Mr. Mehta received the AILA 2018 Edith Lowenstein Memorial Award for advancing the practice of immigration law
to apply the order prospectively, but
this position does not allay concerns and the AILA 2011 Michael Maggio Memorial Award for his outstanding efforts in providing pro bono representation in the
that the executive order could not be immigration field. He has also received two AILA Presidential Commendations in 2010 and 2016. Mr. Mehta is ranked among
applied retroactively in future. Given the most highly regarded lawyers in North America by Who’s Who Legal – Corporate Immigration Law 2019 and is also ranked
that millions of Americans are the
children of immigrants, any efforts to in Chambers USA and Chambers Global 2019 in immigration law, among other rankings.

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