Lawsuits from advocacy groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have already started to pile in after one of Donald Trump’s first executive orders targeted birthright citizenship, as reported by USA Today
The suit, filed Jan. 20, challenges Trump’s executive order to eliminate the automatic citizenship given to children born in the United States. In his order, citizenship would be denied to children born to mothers and fathers presented as illegal immigrants when they were born, or if the parents’ presence was temporary. As the move is part of a swift strategy to combat immigration, the lawsuit from New Hampshire is fighting back to protect the rights given by the 14th Amendment. “Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional − it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values,” ACLU’s executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
“This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans.”
Trump’s order is instructed to take effect in the next 30 days and prompts the Social Security Administration to stop recognizing the children as citizens and for the State Department to stop issuing passports. However, legal experts warn the President may be in over his head with this issue.
The amendment was established during the Civil War so former slaves and their children were recognized as citizens but, according to NBC News, anti-immigrant advocates have used an alternative interpretation, which Trump has focused on. The order attacks language pertaining to birthright citizenship catering to those “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
“I expect the Trump administration to face substantial pushback from the courts when it takes illegal actions that are properly challenged in court,” Jonathan Adler, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, said.
Trump’s amended language pushes the narrative for children born of parents who did not enter the country legally to be denied citizenship, but a majority of legal experts highlight the language only referring to people not bound by U.S. law, usually foreign diplomats.
Such fights have already been battled out in the Supreme Court. In 1898, the high court never directly ruled on the issue in the case of The United States v. Wong Kim Ark, after ruling a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents was a U.S. citizen. Co-executive director of the advocacy group Make the Road New York, Theo Oshiro, condemned Trump’s moves, labeling birthright citizenship as “a cornerstone of our democracy.” To deny their children the same basic rights as all other children born in the United States is an affront to basic values of fairness, equality, and inclusivity,” he continued.
The 47th President is already receiving pushback from Democratic leaders, including Connecticut’s Attorney General William Tong, who professed the state will be “the first to sue” and has “every confidence we will win.”
RELATED CONTENT: Donald Trump Falsely Claims U.S. The ‘Only Country That Has’ The Birthright Citizenship He Wants To End
