Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Twenty-two Democrat-led states and two cities challenged President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship, kicking off the first legal battles Tuesday between his new Justice Department and the Democratic attorney general.
The two separate lawsuits, filedin Massachusetts and state of washingtonasking federal judges to rule that the order violates the Constitution, which under the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
“President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and long-standing constitutional principle by executive fiat,” a group of states wrote in their complaint.
“The principle of birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution for more than 150 years. The Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment unambiguously and expressly grants citizenship to ‘(a)ll persons born’ in and ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the States of the United States.”
Trump’s order signed as part of a flurry of executive actions during his first day in officeseeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are not legally present. But it also applies to some parents in the U.S. on nonimmigrant visas, a broader category that blocks citizenship for children born to those authorized to work in the U.S.
The states’ lawsuits follow a similar challenge filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) late Monday.
In a call Monday to preview the executive orders, a Trump administration official appeared to acknowledge potential problems with the order, saying it would be carried out on a “prospective basis.”
“On a future basis, the federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States,” the official said.
The order from Trump refers to citizenship as “a priceless and profound gift,” and casts the order itself as one that protects the “meaning and value” of American citizenship.
A coalition suing in Massachusetts included Democratic attorneys general in 18 states as well as the cities of Washington, DC and San Francisco.
The second coalition, which filed in Washington, included four states.
“President Trump’s public statements make it clear that he wants to end birthright citizenship solely as a political tactic to allegedly deter immigration to the United States. Despite a president’s broad powers to set immigration policy, the citizenship-stripping order falls well outside the legal boundaries of the authority of the president,” the second group of states wrote in their complaint.
