Posted on January 29, 2025

Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Rattles H-1B Visa Workers Expecting a Baby

Francesca Maglione and Alicia A. Caldwell, Bloomberg, January 27, 2025

Ajay loves living in America, and he says until recently it felt like America loved having him.

An immigrant from India who came with his wife and infant son for graduate school in 2021, he stayed after finding a tech job at a Fortune 500 company that provided him with an H-1B visa. {snip}

Last month, he and his wife were thrilled to discover she’s pregnant. But just two weeks later, excitement turned to apprehension when President Donald Trump announced a new rule under which children born to parents who aren’t permanent residents won’t automatically be US citizens.

The policy — on hold for now after a legal challenge — felt cruel and vindictive, and upended his understanding of what’s possible for holders of H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. The deal, as he saw it, is that one of the rewards for moving around the world to take in-demand jobs that US companies couldn’t otherwise fill was that any kids born in the country would be citizens.

“I think the American dream is coming to an end for most of us,” said Ajay, who asked not to be identified with his full name because of concerns he may face backlash.

Ajay’s dilemma shows the wide ranging fallout from the early days of Trump’s immigration crackdown. While the emphasis during the campaign was border security and deportations of people in the country without permission, some of Trump’s first executive orders have targeted legal immigrants.

That includes refugees whose resettlement plans were canceled, asylum seekers whose appointments to plead their case were scrapped and holders of H-1B and other work and student visas who are now trying to navigate what the new policy on birthright citizenship means for their families.

{snip}

Under Trump’s order, citizenship would be denied to any child who doesn’t have at least one parent who is a US citizen or legal permanent resident. While it would apply to those in the country illegally — long a goal of Miller and others — it would also extend to those in the US as tourists, students or on temporary work visas.

{snip}

On Jan. 23, a federal judge in Seattle, John Coughenour, put the order on hold for 14 days and could extend that going forward. Other hearings set for challenges filed elsewhere are expected in the coming weeks.

Rajat Suri, a tech entrepreneur and co-founder of the ride hailing company Lyft Inc., said curtailing birthright citizenship has the potential to make it dramatically harder for US companies to recruit foreign workers.

“Every company that hires talented immigrants to come work for them, they are attracting them to build their lives, including families,” said Suri, whose latest venture is Lima, a company that helps foreign workers interested in moving to the US navigate the system. “If a baby is not going to be a US citizen, that is going to be a huge deterrent.”

{snip}

Indian nationals would be disproportionately affected by any change in birthright citizenship because they face a particularly long wait to get permanent residency, known as a green card, due to limits on how many people from any one country can get the status every year. For those immigrants, the wait is several decades. Other countries with less demand have little to no wait time.

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said eliminating birthright citizenship would drastically reduce the appeal of staying for many foreigners who graduate from US colleges and would otherwise want to find US jobs. Should recruiting become significantly more difficult, companies may opt to expand overseas to tap into talent there rather than grow domestically.

{snip}

Prasad Thotakura, a prominent member of the Indian-American community in Dallas, said the Indian diaspora is keyed in to the issue and worried about the ramifications of Trump’s order. At the moment, it isn’t clear what exactly the status of a child born to parents on temporary visas would have.

{snip}