For 16 years now, our Summer Reading Contest has been inviting teenagers around the world to tell us about the recent Times pieces that have gotten their attention, and explain why. Students can submit either written comments or 90-second video responses.
This week, the fifth of our 10-week challenge, we received 1,088 submissions, and chose as our winning essay a piece by Ayesha Afghan, a student from Niskayuna, N.Y.
Scroll down to read her work, and to find a list of runners-up and honorable mentions. As you go, check out the variety of other topics that caught the eyes of these teens, including pieces about relationship advice, what makes someone cool, monsoon season, cotillion, and “finding beauty in fake flowers.”
You can read the work of all of our winners since 2017 in this column. And remember that you can participate any or every week this summer until Aug. 15. Just check the top of this page, where we post updates, to find the right place to submit your response.
Winner
Ayesha Afghan, 16, from Niskayuna, N.Y., responded to a June 27 article from the U.S. section headlined “In Birthright Citizenship Case, Supreme Court Limits Power of Judges to Block Trump Policies,” and wrote:
My parents are legal immigrants, but growing up in Queens, that didn’t mean much. Everyone around us was “illegal” in some way — overstayed visas, expired documents, and sometimes, no papers at all. Their kids ran through sprinklers, lined up for lunch, knew no other country but this one. I’ve always known the only thing separating me from them were government stamps and a manila folder full of paperwork.
Reading about the Supreme Court limiting nationwide injunctions — allowing Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship to take effect in most states — felt terrifying. This isn’t just a policy debate. It’s a direct threat to the lives of children like the ones I grew up with.
Children who didn’t choose where they were born, or who their parents are. Children who couldn’t tug on their umbilical cord and ask to be delivered “legally.” Children that are welcomed by the Constitution and somehow shunned by the state.
It doesn’t make sense.
The article explains how this ruling could create a “patchwork system” across states, meaning your ZIP code might decide if you’re a citizen. That’s not democracy. That’s roulette. We call it birthright for a reason. Not privilege. Not permission. Right. When courts stay silent and power moves unchecked, that right turns into a lottery. And the kids I grew up with — the ones who call this country home just like you and I — are the ones left losing.
Editor’s note: On July 10, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its executive order ending birthright citizenship after certifying a lawsuit as a class action, effectively the only way he could impose such a far-reaching limit after the Supreme Court ruling last month.
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