{"id":736210,"date":"2026-07-01T04:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736210\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T04:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T04:36:11","slug":"how-birthright-citizenship-allowed-usmnt-star-folarin-balogun-to-rep-team-usa-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/736210\/","title":{"rendered":"How birthright citizenship allowed USMNT star Folarin Balogun to rep Team USA \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday voted in favor of upholding birthright citizenship<\/a> and while advocates cheered on the highest court\u2019s decision, the topic is close to some U.S. citizens, including a USMNT star.<\/p>\n

Folarin Balogun said he was born in Brooklyn while his parents were visiting the U.S. His Nigerian parents were traveling through New York when his mother, who was heavily pregnant, was prevented from boarding a flight back to England.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, the soccer star was born in New York and his family then returned to England. Born on American soil, the striker holds U.S. citizenship and is now representing Team USA in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy decision to represent the United States \u2026 we decided it would be the right thing for me, the country I was born in. In the end, it became a no-brainer,\u201d Balogun said in an interview with U.S. Men\u2019s Soccer.<\/p>\n

The striker, who has so far scored two goals for Team USA in the World Cup, opened up on the significance of representing the USMNT to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo represent the United States means a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cI just hope I can bring that prestige and winning mentality over into soccer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe legal principle that a person born in the U.S. automatically becomes a citizen was further reinforced by the Supreme Court decision. Conan Nolan and Keenan Willard report for the NBC4 News at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, June 30, 2026.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Long Beach attorney David Boyle, who filed an amicus brief opposing President Trump\u2019s challenge, pointed to Balogun\u2019s story after the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica has been rewarded many times for its generosity to birthright-citizen babies\u2026 super-talented Folarin Balogun of Team USA shows a great example of how all kinds of people can contribute to the USA,\u201d the attorney wrote in his brief.<\/p>\n

The Constitution\u2019s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born on U.S. soil, with exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday voted in favor of upholding birthright citizenship and while advocates cheered on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,790,3,111,21,19,22,20,25,24,90221],"class_list":["post-736210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-immigration","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-usmnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}