The legal fight over US birthright citizenship is intensifying as opponents prepare fresh challenges to President Trump’s efforts to restrict who automatically becomes an American citizen at birth. The dispute matters because it tests the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and could affect children born in the United States to parents without permanent immigration status.

The administration argues that the amendment’s jurisdiction requirement permits limits on citizenship for children of undocumented migrants and some temporary visitors, while challengers say this conflicts with constitutional text, federal law and long-standing precedent. Earlier court rulings have blocked similar restrictions, leaving the issue likely to return to higher courts and potentially the Supreme Court.