President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship faced a flurry of legal challenges from 22 states and a slew of civil rights groups.
One coalition of 18 states, including New Jersey, New York and California, filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, claiming the order violates the constitutional rights of thousands of children and imposes undue costs on local jurisdictions that would lose federal funding tied to Medicaid and children’s health insurance. The District of Columbia and San Francisco also joined that filing.
Another group of states, including Arizona and Washington, filed a separate legal challenge Tuesday afternoon.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lawyers for Civil Rights filed lawsuits in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, respectively, on behalf of parents whose children would not be eligible for citizenship under Trump’s order.
“One of Donald Trump’s first executive orders yesterday seeks to strip certain U.S.-born babies of citizenship – and we immediately filed a lawsuit to stop him,” said Cody Wofsy, the lead ACLU attorney on the case. “Trump’s order not only violates more than a century of Supreme Court precedent, it’s a flagrant attack on immigrant communities and all our constitutional rights.”
The litigation suggests that the effort could be tied up in court and unlikely to take effect next month as planned.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.
It’s enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and has been in place for more than a century.
“The Constitution could not be more clear: citizenship of children born in the United States does not depend on the citizenship of their parents,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said in a statement. “That principle is fundamental to who we are as a nation and what it means to be an American.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Trump’s action “is not just unconstitutional, it is profoundly dangerous.”
Trump signed the executive order shortly after his inauguration on Monday.
Titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” the order stipulates that his administration will no longer recognize automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil to immigrant parents who are in the country without authorization, provided neither parent is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.
In his first term, Trump threatened to take similar action but did not follow through, as was typical of that administration.
The order, which Trump said would take effect 30 days from its signing, also bars automatic citizenship for children born to noncitizen parents who are in the country on temporary work, student or tourist visas.
“That’s a good one — birthright,” Trump told reporters, while signing the document. “That’s a big one.”
Legal experts said the sweeping effort runs counter to more than a century of legal precedent and is unlikely to pass constitutional muster.
The plan also faces significant logistical hurdles. The administration plans to enforce Trump’s order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.
The order also says the administration will refuse to accept documents from local or state governments that purport to recognize the citizenship of the children it has deemed ineligible for citizenship.