Twenty-two Democratic-led U.S. states sued Tuesday to try to block President Donald Trump from ending birthright U.S. citizenship for the children of undocumented migrants living in the country.
The suit by the states, joined by the city governments in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, are among the first filed by those opposing Trump’s executive orders, which he signed in the immediate hours after his inauguration Monday.
The U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship to those born in the country, and court rulings have made only small exceptions, such as rejecting citizenship for the offspring of foreign diplomats born in the U.S. Presidents cannot unilaterally change the Constitution, which instead must be accomplished through large majorities of lawmakers in Congress or wide state legislative action.
But Trump, as part of his crackdown on 11 million or more undocumented migrants living in the U.S., signed one executive order directing U.S. agencies to stop handing citizenship documents to the offspring of undocumented migrants.
The Republican president’s order directed federal officials, starting Feb. 19, to not recognize U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States to mothers who are in the country illegally or are in the U.S. only temporarily, such as visa holders, and whose fathers are not citizens or lawful permanent residents.
Trump’s nascent administration is moving quickly to deport such migrants back to their home countries, even if they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes and assimilated into American life. Trump’s immigration agents are first targeting undocumented migrants who have been convicted of crimes.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in a statement, “State attorneys general have been preparing for illegal actions like [Trump’s no-citizenship edict], and today’s immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights.”
The White House did not immediately comment on the suits, three of which were filed in Boston, Massachusetts, and Concord, New Hampshire. Four states filed a separate lawsuit in Washington.
Democratic-led states and advocacy groups have immediately challenged two other Trump executive orders, one creating the Department of Government Efficiency — a nongovernmental advisory panel overseen by billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk — and another weakening job protections for government civil servants to make it easier for the Trump administration to fire them and replace them with Trump loyalists.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said that if Trump’s no-citizenship order is allowed to stand, it would mean more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States would be denied the right to citizenship.
“President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights,” she said in a statement.
One of the plaintiffs challenging the order is a woman living in Massachusetts identified only as “O. Doe.” She is in the country through temporary protected status and is due to give birth in March.
The temporary protected status immigration designation is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events and currently covers more than 1 million people from 17 nations.
U.S. birthright citizenship was enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the aftermath of the Civil War in the early 1860s and ratified in 1868. It says: “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.”
Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general, said Tuesday that presidents might have broad authority, but they are not kings.
“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” he said.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him.
“The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop,” he said. “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own.”
Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts along with other immigrant rights advocates have also filed suit to block Trump’s action.
Their suit asked a court to rule that Trump’s order is unconstitutional. It cites the case of a woman identified as “Carmen,” who is pregnant but is not a U.S. citizen. The lawsuit says she has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent resident status. She has no other immigration status, and the father of her expected child has no immigration status either, the suit says.
“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a grave injury,” the suit said. “It denies them the full membership in U.S. society to which they are entitled.”
Some material in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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