by Allan Wall, Border Hawk, ©2026
(Aug. 12, 2026) — An extremely bad Supreme Court decision coinciding with an international soccer tournament and a blockbuster Hollywood movie show that U.S. citizenship no longer belongs to us, but to the entire world.
In Trump v. Barbara, the John Roberts SCOTUS Majority declared on June 30 that any child born on U.S. soil, regardless of his parents’ citizenship, legal status or residency, is a U.S. citizen.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote an excellent dissent showing that the intent and practice of the 14th Amendment only gave citizenship to children of parents with legal U.S. residency, but alas, the court majority didn’t see it that way.
At the same time, the 2026 FIFA World Cup was being played in North America.
U.S. star Folarin Balogun was a media poster child for automatic birthright citizenship.
Time magazine ran an article entitled “The U.S. Can Thank Birthright Citizenship for Its Best World Cup Player.”
Balogun’s parents were from Nigeria and moved to Britain. When his mother was seven months pregnant, his parents visited New York City. When they attempted to return to Britain, the airline didn’t allow her to fly back due to her pregnancy. So, the couple stayed in the Big Apple, allowing little Folarin to be born a U.S. citizen and return to Britain two months after his birth.
Balogun wasn’t even raised in the U.S. but decided to play on the American soccer team. So there he was, playing on the U.S. squad and being championed by the mainstream media as a justification for a bad policy.
During a game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Balogun was penalized and banned from playing in the next match against Belgium. However, President Trump intervened and enabled him to complete the contest.
But it didn’t help. Team Belgium shellacked Team USA 4-1, eliminating the Americans from the tournament.
I have nothing against Folarin Balogun, but frankly, having a great soccer team is way down my list of priorities for the U.S.
I think it’s much more important to have solid citizenship laws that are enforced. Besides, Balogun didn’t even win the game for us!
Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about “The Odyssey,” a movie written and directed by dual citizen Christopher Nolan (British dad, American mom).
Prior to the film’s release, it was announced that black actress Lupita Nyong’o was being cast as Helen of Troy.
The ancient Greek writers described Helen as white and blonde. So casting a black actress for Helen was meant to make a statement.
Just imagine what would happen if a director cast a blonde European actress to portray a black queen in an African folktale. Would nobody object?
As it turns out, Lupita Nyong’o has some interesting citizenship issues of her own – she’s a citizenship collector, currently of three countries.
Her parents are Kenyan, but she was born in Mexico. That made her both a Kenyan citizen and a Mexican citizen, since Mexico also has automatic birthright citizenship.
Later in life, Lupita adopted American citizenship, and why not? She was naturalized shortly before the 2024 election and thus was able to vote for Kamala Harris.
When a person takes the U.S. naturalization oath, he or she says, “I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen…”
Does that mean Lupita is no longer a citizen of Kenya or Mexico?
Well, that quaint U.S. naturalization oath is apparently a dead letter.
According to the State Department, “U.S. law does not impede its citizens’ acquisition of foreign citizenship whether by birth, descent, naturalization or other form of acquisition…”
And remember, our Supreme Court recently declared that the mother need only be physically present on U.S. soil long enough to deliver the baby to make him/her a U.S. citizen.
How many million people are now dual citizens of the U.S. and other countries?
Isn’t it high time to reform our citizenship law?
You can find more of Allan Wall’s work at his website and Mexico News Report.