Less than a day after President Trump signed an Executive Order targeting birthright citizenship, several states joined together to file a lawsuit asserting that Trump’s efforts to counteract the Fourteenth Amendment are unconstitutional.
The lawsuit is a joint filing by the Attorney Generals of California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, as well as by the City of San Francisco.
“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” said California State Attorney General Rob Bonta in a press release announcing the lawsuit. “As home of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native who fought – successfully – to have his U.S. citizenship recognized, California condemns the President’s attempts to erase history and ignore 125 years of Supreme Court precedent. We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”
“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American.”
California State Attorney General Rob Bonta
Attorney General Bonta’s press release goes on to explain that Trump’s order – should it be allowed to stand – would jeopardize the rightful US citizenship of tens of thousands of children born each year.
“These children would lose their most basic rights and be forced to live under the threat of deportation. They would lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs. They would lose their ability obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they would lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices,” says the press release.
“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 confers citizenship on “[a]ll persons born” in and “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States,” reads the complaint. “President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle by executive fiat.”)
Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also filed a lawsuit Monday against the Trump White House challenging the same executive order that attacks birthright citizenship.
“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. 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. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero in a press release announcing the lawsuit.
“Denying citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil is illegal, profoundly cruel, and contrary to our values as a country.”
Deputy Director of ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project Cody Wofsy
“One… couple impacted by this lawsuit are members of New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support,” reads the ACLU press release. “They arrived in 2023, applied for asylum, and their application awaits review. The mom-to-be is in her third trimester. Under this executive order, their baby would be considered an undocumented noncitizen and could be denied basic health care and nutrition, putting the newborn at grave risk at such a vulnerable stage of life.”
Like the couple described above, an estimated two-thirds of Asian Americans are foreign-born immigrants. Of these, an estimated 1.7 million – or 1 in 7 – Asian immigrants are undocumented, according to AAPI Data. This represents about 16% of the undocumented immigrant population in the United States. Nearly one-third of undocumented Asian immigrants settle in states like California, New York and Texas. Indeed, the population of undocumented Asian immigrants has roughly tripled in the last 25 years, and include asylum seekers and other migrants.
“Birthright citizenship is guaranteed in our Constitution and is absolutely central to what America stands for,” said Deputy Director of ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project Cody Wofsy in their press release. Wofsy is the lead attorney of ACLU’s lawsuit.
“Denying citizenship to babies born on U.S. soil is illegal, profoundly cruel, and contrary to our values as a country,” he added.
