In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Barbara, Dr. Janelle Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Kindred Futures, issued the following statement:

“Birthright citizenship is a legal protection, but what it protects is the ability to participate in the economy, in the civic life of a community, in the systems that determine who builds wealth and who does not. Black communities across the South know what it looks like when that participation is constrained, not only by law but by decades of policy decisions that followed from political exclusion. When communities lose the representation that fights for their budgets, their infrastructure, their access to capital, the economic consequences are immediate and they compound over time.

Today’s ruling holds a floor. But holding the floor is not the same as building the house. The economic consequences of who gets counted, who gets represented, and who gets to make decisions about their own communities are already being felt across the South. That work does not pause for court decisions, and neither does the need.”