No fewer than 24 states have served notice to challenge the president’s executive order, which denies the recognition of U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants as citizens.
Attorneys general from 22 states filed lawsuits on Tuesday in two federal courts to prevent the implementation of an executive order by President Trump.
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The order, which denies birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to unauthorized immigrants, marks the beginning of a likely prolonged legal dispute over immigration policy.
The Constitutional Debate
In Massachusetts, 18 states and two cities—San Francisco and Washington, D.C.—argued in Federal District Court that the 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship “automatically” and that neither the president nor Congress has the authority to amend it.
Separately, four other states filed a similar lawsuit in the Western District of Washington.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, who is part of the legal challenge alongside the attorneys general of California and Massachusetts, called the attempt to limit birthright citizenship “extraordinary and extreme.”
“Presidents are powerful but he is not a king. He cannot rewrite the Constitution with a stroke of the pen, Platkin stated.”
Impact on Citizenship Rights
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown warned that the executive order would impact 150,000 children annually.
“It would render them undocumented at birth. It could even render them citizens to no country at all,” Brown explained.Washington’s lawsuit is joined by Oregon, Arizona, and Illinois.
During the first hours of his second term on Monday, President Trump signed an order stating that future children born to undocumented immigrants would not be recognized as citizens. The order also applies to children of certain legal, temporary residents, such as tourists or students.
Legal Experts Weigh In
The executive order argues that such children are not ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and therefore, are not covered by the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause.
This order contradicts over a century of legal precedent affirming that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all babies born in the U.S., except in rare cases, such as children of diplomats or those born under foreign military occupation.
“It’s so outlandish that it’s almost assured to be struck down,” commented Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar.
“Even the former Vice President Kamala Harris, born to a foreign student might be affected. The person who drafted this order was not doing Donald Trump any favors, he added.”
The New York Times
