18 states are suing the Trump administration for a directive that aims to nullify birthright citizenship.
To halt President Trump executive order that aims to abolish birthright citizenship, a group of Democratic state attorneys general filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday.
Shortly after taking office on Monday, Mr. Trump used his presidential authority to launch his long-promised immigration crackdown. Under one of his executive actions, the federal government was ordered to cease issuing passports, citizenship certificates, and other documents to a large number of children born in the United States whose mothers are either illegally present in the country or for whom neither parent is a lawful permanent resident.
According to the 18 states’ lawsuit, which was submitted to a federal court in Massachusetts, Mr. Trump’s initiative is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which the federal government has long interpreted to mean that people born in the United States are citizens at birth. Washington, D.C., and San Francisco also joined the lawsuit. The fourteenth amendment states that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
“The great promise of our nation is that everyone born here is a citizen of the United States, able to achieve the American dream,” said Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, for CBS News. “This fundamental right to birthright citizenship, rooted in the 14th Amendment and born from the ashes of slavery, is a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to justice.”
The suit is seeking a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the executive order, and ultimately, to invalidate it. The states that joined the suit are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.
“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”
Mr. Trump instructed that his directive be put into effect within 30 days. Shortly after it was released, the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy organizations filed a separate lawsuit in an attempt to block it.
Later on Tuesday, four additional states—Illnesses, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon—filed a separate lawsuit against the executive order in the state of Washington.
Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement that “denying birthright citizenship, which has been upheld twice by the U.S. Supreme Court and dates back centuries, is not the solution,” but that “we need to discuss bipartisan commonsense immigration reforms.”