Millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief this week when the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in the United States. A 6-3 ruling in the Trump v. Barbara case affirmed a core tenet of America’s constitution. Its reliance on the 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark reminds us that citizenship has always been a contested status for those of us who are not White and male.

For immigrants like me, the ideal of America has always been far from its reality. The win was not guaranteed, and is especially noteworthy coming days before the country marks 250 years of its declaration of independence.

I moved to the United States as an international student, understanding it to be a place of freedom, a place where people could speak their minds and pursue their passions. For decades, this is the story America has told about itself, through its heavy-handed diplomacy and its Hollywood imagery. In fact, as any immigrant can attest, the road to American citizenship — on paper and in practice — is paved with roadblocks: Years-long waiting times and paperwork lost by immigration authorities, or dead ends like denials of legitimate asylum claims.

The most public of these challenges occur in the courts or in the ICE raids that have plagued immigrant communities since January 2025. But in........

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