US Supreme Court upholds birthright citizenship

**Janet Jaleel** (0:00)
This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jaleel, and in the early hours of Wednesday, the first of July, these are our main stories. Donald Trump says he'll try to use Congress to get around the US Supreme Court's rejection of the president's order banning birthright citizenship. Spain is inundated with applications from undocumented migrants to remain in the country under a government scheme. A week on from Venezuela's devastating double earthquake, the search continues for tens of thousands of people who are still missing.
Also in this podcast, Serena Williams' tennis comeback at Wimbledon at the age of 44 ends in disappointment, a moment her 20-year-old opponent will never forget.

**Maya Joint** (0:52)
She has such an aura, she's such a legend, and this court has so many huge names that played on it, I just, I've been dreaming about this moment since I was a little kid, so this is pretty crazy.

**Janet Jaleel** (1:08)
One of President Trump's first acts on returning to office last year was to sign an executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for anyone born to foreign parents in the US.
He'd argued that undocumented migrants were not subject to a right that has been enshrined in the American Constitution for more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery. But judges at the US. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision have delivered a clear message to Mr. Trump. Birthright citizenship can't simply be annulled with the stroke of a presidential pen.
He responded by saying the court's decision was too bad and that he would use Congress to get around it. The House Speaker, Mike Johnson, also expressed his disappointment.

**Mike Johnson** (1:55)
It is a serious problem.
It's become a tourism, birthing tourism they call it, you know, a trend where people will just come and you just come onto the soil and have your child and then they're able to avail themselves of the welfare state and everything else. It's been abused.

**Janet Jaleel** (2:10)
But for those who have settled in the US and gone on to have children, this ruling brings a great sense of relief. The BBC heard from one woman who travelled to the US to claim asylum after fleeing Guatemala because of the threat of violence back home.
Last year she gave birth to a baby girl. She didn't want to give us her name and her words are spoken by an interpreter. She says the term birth tourism is offensive to many hard working migrants.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:37)
I would ask that they not think that way, but rather give us a chance to show that we don't want to be a burden on the government. We are hard working people working to put bread on the table for families. I would ask that they look at us with eyes of compassion.
I have hope that my daughter's life will be safer in this country. She will have a better, more stable life here.

**Janet Jaleel** (3:08)
So how could President Trump use Congress to overturn the Supreme Court ruling? A question I put to our North America correspondent David Willis.

**David Willis** (3:17)
Several bills introduced by Republican lawmakers are seeking to end or either sharply restrict automatic birthright citizenship by amending the US Immigration and Nationality Act. But constitutional scholars have expressed doubt here that changing the Constitution is likely or even possible. And one important thing to remember against that background is that polls show that the majority of Americans support birthright citizenship. But this ruling by the Supreme Court is a big blow for Donald Trump. This was a key area of battle for him. He's talked about restricting birthright citizenship in this country since the beginning of his first term in office back in 2015
But he's found those ambitions blocked by the highest court in the land.

**Janet Jaleel** (4:13)
But the Supreme Court did deliver better news to President Trump on other rulings.

**David Willis** (4:18)
They did, yes. On social media, Donald Trump hailed a big win, as he put it, on the question of trans gender athletes participating in women's school sports. The Supreme Court ruled that bans that exist in nearly 30 different states are not unconstitutional and can remain in existence. And this has been a big talking point for Republicans, even though the number of transgender athletes seeking to participate in school sports is said to be very small.
Lifting campaign spending limits has also been a preoccupation of some in the Republican Party, and the Supreme Court has now lifted limits on political parties and candidates, which Republicans who traditionally attract big money donors believe could help them ahead of November's midterm elections. And on social media, Donald Trump described that decision as a big win, as he put it, for his party.