President Donald Trump’s plan to end birthright citizenship has led to a major legal fight. Attorneys from 18 states, San Francisco and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the move, describing it as an illegal attempt to deny citizenship to American-born children based on the immigration status of their parents. The lawsuit takes issue with an executive order Trump signed on Monday that took office shortly after he became president.
The 18 Democratic attorneys general say Trump is trying to destroy a “long-standing Constitutional principle” with executive power. “The President cannot amend a constitutional amendment or nullify a federal law,” the lawsuit says.
The number of states involved in the legal challenge rose to 22 later that day when four more states joined. A federal court hearing scheduled for Thursday will consider a request for a temporary restraining order against the executive order. The first judge to decide that question will be John Coughenour, appointed by President Ronald Reagan.
Trump’s order instructs federal agencies to end the practice of granting citizenship to U.S.-born children of undocumented mothers or mothers on temporary visas, in cases where the father isn’t a U.S. citizen or legal resident. About 150,000 children born every year to parents without legal status could be stripped of access to basic services, including health care, foster care and early childhood programs, according to the lawsuit. These children could also be deported and become stateless.
The states also say that the order could lead to cuts in federal funding of some programs that serve children regardless of immigration status. Legal experts point out that decisions about how the 14th Amendment applies to birthright citizenship can only be made by the Supreme Court.
“President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship is a brazen attack on the Constitution,” said New Jersey’s attorney general, Matthew Platkin. “For more than 150 years, babies born on our soil in this country are American citizens.”
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, said birthright citizenship had historical significance, bartering the Civil War-era 14th Amendment, passed after slavery was abolished. “This fundamental right is a bedrock of our nation’s commitment to justice,” she said.
California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, vowed to stand up for progress in his state, saying in a statement, “We will fight to ensure this unconstitutional order does not go into effect.”
Besides the states’ legal challenge, nonprofit groups in Massachusetts and New Hampshire have also filed their own lawsuits to try and block the executive order.
