WASHINGTON — Western Massachusetts immigrant advocates and Democratic lawmakers welcomed a Supreme Court ruling Tuesday preserving birthright citizenship, expressing relief after justices rejected President Donald Trump’s executive order attempting to limit it.

“This is a major victory,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “If you’re born here, you’re an American citizen.”

In the 6-3 ruling, the court held that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born in the United States, rejecting Trump’s order that sought to deny citizenship to children born to people living in the country illegally or temporarily.

“Today’s decision should never have been in question,” U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, said in a statement. “But with the Court upholding more than 157 years of legal precedent, a pillar of our democracy has been preserved. America has always been a beacon of freedom and opportunity for those seeking a better life. With Trump’s disgusting distraction struck down, we recommit to that legacy.”

The majority of justices cited language of the 14th Amendment and other recent federal laws in ruling that anyone born in the country, with very limited exceptions, is a citizen.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court, citing congressional debate over the amendment. “We keep that promise today.”

The ruling blocks an executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 20, the first day of his second term, titled “Protecting the meaning and value of American citizenship,” that would have upended widely held views of the 14th Amendment, which confers citizenship on everyone born in the U.S., excluding only the children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

Birthright citizenship became law in 1868 when the 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War, in part to ensure that former slaves would be citizens. Rose, who is a lawyer, said in an interview Tuesday that the “conclusive” ruling upholds the “fundamental constitutional right” to that amendment.

When the Supreme Court opened arguments in April, both conservative and liberal justices questioned the order’s legality of the case, Trump v. Barbara. Trump attended the session in person, breaking the tradition of presidents refraining from attending arguments at the nation’s highest court.

In the wake of the ruling, several national and local legislators expressed relief and joy at the decision.

“Today’s decision upholds a fundamental constitutional principle that has defined our nation for generations,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement. “Birthright citizenship is central to who we are as a nation. It has provided certainty for families across the country and protects the rights of children born on American soil.”

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Malden, said the Supreme Court reaffirmed a constitutional truth that has guided the nation for more than 150 years: “If you are born on American soil, you are an American.”

“We are, and always have been, a nation of immigrants,” Markey said in a written statement. “And this ideal, written into the Fourteenth Amendment, cannot be rewritten with the stroke of a Sharpie.”

He said the fight is far from over, noting that the Trump administration remains intent on destroying immigrant families, and on trampling on due process and the rule of law.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester, said, “Rarely does this MAGA-packed Supreme Court grow a pair and stand up to Trump. Thankfully, today, they reaffirmed a basic truth: if you’re born in this country, you are a citizen of this country. A big win for the Constitution, the rule of law, and our fundamental freedoms.”

Rose said the ruling shows that the president cannot change the Constitution through an executive order. If the administration were to continue efforts to alter the limits of birthright citizenship, Rose said it would have to be done through a constitutional amendment.

“It beggars the imagination to think that the Trump administration would go through a constitutional amendment,” Rose said.

The justices ruled on an appeal that Trump made of a lower-court ruling from New Hampshire, which struck down the proposed citizenship restrictions. Birthright citizenship is the first Trump immigration-related policy to reach the Supreme Court for a final ruling.

The Trump administration argued that the common view of citizenship is wrong, asserting that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore are not entitled to citizenship.

Laurie Millman, director of the Center for New Americans, a western Massachusetts nonprofit and education center for immigrant, refugee and migrant communities, said the ruling is a “relief.”

“We have many students who have had children born in the U.S. who are now citizens,” Millman said. “It’s not uncommon for people to have children that they brought with them.”

Since the center helps people apply for citizenship, Millman said the ruling will not affect its work directly, but she is still pleased with the decision, knowing it “will bring less turmoil to people here, living their lives and contributing to the community.”

More than one-quarter of a million babies born in the U.S. each year would have been affected by the order, according to research by the Migration Policy Institute and Pennsylvania State University’s Population Research Institute.

Patricia Williams, the Precinct Six representative on Greenfield’s City Council and a member of the Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution Immigration Rights Task Force, said the news of the decision was surprising, and a step for immigrant rights.

“That’s wonderful,” she said when reached by phone Tuesday afternoon. “That has been something that has been looming over immigrants for a while.”

In advance of the ruling, Trump implied that the court was likely to rule against him on birthright citizenship, criticizing “dumb judges and justices”  on his Truth Social platform, along with wealthy pregnant women from China and elsewhere who come to the U.S. to give birth so their newborns will have American citizenship. The order would have applied to people who are legally in the United States, including students and applicants for green cards, or permanent resident status.

Along with the Supreme Court ruling, the Republican president’s restrictions had been blocked by several lower courts that deemed the order illegal, and had not taken effect in the U.S. The decisions invoked the high court’s 1898 ruling in Wong Kim Ark, which held that the U.S.-born child of Chinese nationals was a citizen.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.