This was the news Meny was dreading. It spilled out from the car radio, flooding her drive to work with the question that threatened to overwhelm her: What comes next? Heart racing and anxiety spiking, she sought comfort from the one person who always had a brighter view on things. She called her husband. The couple, immigrants from Latin America, had been planning on getting their unborn child a passport as soon as possible. Now, her child’s citizenship, something she had imagined was a right enshrined in the Constitution for anyone born in the United States, was in doubt.
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order aiming to restrict birthright citizenship – a move that would leave Meny’s unborn child stateless.
A week earlier, Leidy Perez, the policy and communications director at the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, had reached out to Meny asking if she would be willing to join a lawsuit against the Trump administration should it make such a move.
“I said yes without thinking because I’ve always had the opinion that if a mother doesn’t advocate for her children, then how can we wait for someone else to come and do it?” Meny said.
Now, that possibility has become a reality.
The lawsuit against the Trump Administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship was filed on Jan. 21, one day after Trump’s announcement. The plaintiffs include two nonprofit organizations that focus on assisting immigrants and immigrant communities – ASAP and CASA – and five pregnant mothers identified only by their first name, as in the case of Meny, or by an alias. Meny herself joined the lawsuit under ASAP, with her personal experience shared in the organization’s formal written statement submitted to the court. The case goes by the name CASA v. Trump.
“I’m afraid of what might happen because nothing is certain right now,” Meny said. “But I feel like I’m on the path, moving forward, and this gives one hope.”
A federal judge granted respite from the uncertainty in February when she granted an injunction, indefinitely blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order to restrict birthright citizenship. A month later, the U.S. government asked the Supreme Court for a partial stay on the pause.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Trump v. Casa, which consists of the original case consolidated with two other birthright citizenship lawsuits, on May 15. The Department of Justice did not respond for comment before publication.
Once again, Meny found the fate of her unborn child uncertain – left in the hands of nine judges.
The administration has left Meny, who is due in July, “stuck with one foot here and the other foot there,” she said.
“It’s very difficult to know what’s going to happen,” Meny said, “Even in our case, I feel we’re a little more protected by the fact that we have social security and a work permit. However, that doesn’t assure us that nothing will happen.”
A protective veil shrouds Meny’s life from public view. There are some details that are safe to share. A California resident, Meny and her husband are both educators for people with disabilities.
Their 8-year-old son’s autism diagnosis played a big role their decision to work with people with disabilities, with Meny saying through her representatives that she “has heard so many bad stories of people with disabilities not being treated well, that she feels a passion for her job and knowing that at least for the eight hours each day that she works, her clients, and her husband’s, can feel safe and loved.”
Both she and her partner have open asylum applications pending at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after they fled from Honduras. Meny’s legal counsel asked Capital News Service not to include questions about her immigration case as a part of the interview for her safety.
But Meny did share that she came to the United States more by need than by choice.
“We all migrate out of necessity. I don’t believe that anybody does it just to see what happens or just to live the experience,” Meny said. “I believe that we all have a very important reason to migrate, to leave everything behind, to risk our families, like, in my case, myself, my husband and my boy. And, yes, really, yes, it’s very scary to be at a border.”
She took a breath, apologizing for her shaking voice before starting again.
“But it is very hard and very scary. Not knowing what’s going to happen. The hardest part is the understanding and the tolerance that many people don’t have toward us. For me, that’s the most complicated part of this, aside from the fear of not knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Meny said. “Laws are constantly changing, policies change, so our position changes every day.”
Again, Meny said, part of that fear was the intolerance she experienced as an immigrant.
“I think it’s intensified even more now because people now feel more entitled to mistreat us, criticize us, and insult us. Psychologically, mentally, it’s also a burden we have to fight every day.”
She is joined by several other mothers in this case, all with their own veils.
Georgina, a Maryland resident, was two months pregnant when the lawsuit was filed. Originally from El Salvador, she has been in the U.S. for six years and is a single mother with limited financial resources. The lawsuit states that Georgina fears that if her child isn’t granted U.S. citizenship and its benefits, she won’t be able to support the baby. She is also afraid her child will be subject to discrimination “because she has seen how noncitizens are treated poorly in this country.”
Niurka, a Florida resident, was due in March. She and her partner are from Cuba and crossed the Mexico-U.S. border. They were placed in deportation proceedings before the U.S. immigration courts. They now have a pending asylum application and a pending lawful permanent residency application under the Cuban Adjustment Act. While in Cuba, she was a medical doctor and her partner was a biopharmaicist.
The lawsuit states Niurka and her partner have “no intention of ever going back to Cuba because of the dictatorship, would never want their child to be a Cuban citizen, and do not want their child to ever have to set foot in Cuba.” In the case he is denied U.S. citizenship, they are concerned their son wouldn’t have citizenship from any country.
Lesly, who lives in New Jersey, was due in July. Using an app developed by the U.S. Customs and Border Protections for a wide variety of purposes, including scheduling appointments for asylum processing at the border – Lesly crossed the border and applied for asylum. Her next hearing is 2028.
The stress has begun to build on all these women. Lesly is unsure if she will have to start a U.S. immigration process for her unborn child, and hiring an immigration attorney could cost a lot of money.
The list of these women and their stories go on. All of them use their first name or an alias to protect their identity and their families.
Is Meny worried her identity will become public because she is part of the lawsuit pending before the Supreme Court of the United States?
“I’ve never been afraid of that. On the contrary,” she said. “I think knowing who I am and putting myself out there and having someone know who I am – what my name is, where I come from, what happened – I feel that it is important.”
However, ASAP asked Capital News Service not to reveal details of Meny’s immigration case on the basis that if one of the women’s full names was made public, the government could challenge everyone else’s anonymity.
There were no guarantees for her with this court case. Meny doesn’t have a backup plan on if the limitations on birthright citizenship come to pass. She does know, however, that whatever she has to endure, even with the fear that comes with it, she will remain here.
“That fear is what gives you strength,” Meny said.
Andrea Durán contributed to this story.