The day after President Trump signed an executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship, a group of 18 Democratic state attorneys general joined the legal fight to block the move, describing it as unconstitutional.
"What the president did yesterday is unlawful, unconstitutional and it will not stand," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said in an interview with NPR.
"We are a state of immigrants. Millions of people in our state have obtained their citizenship through birthright citizenship," Platkin said. "It's the story of our state and the story of America, and it's enshrined in our [U.S.] Constitution for a reason."
Democratic state attorneys general from New Jersey to California signed on to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Massachusetts. The city of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., also are suing.
During a news conference Tuesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta described Trump's order as "a terrifying tone to set for his second term," adding, "I have one message for President Trump: I'll see you in court."
On Monday, in a separate legal action, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking Trump's order. "Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it's also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values," said Anthony D. Romero, the ACLU's executive director, in a statement.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, stipulates that "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" are automatically citizens.
The language was crafted and added to the Constitution to establish full citizenship rights for Black Americans, but it has been interpreted for more than a century as also granting rights to all children born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status.
In his executive order, however, Trump interpreted the amendment's language as excluding babies born in the U.S. to parents who are "unlawfully" present or who have "lawful but temporary" status.
"It's ridiculous. We're the only country in the world that does this [grants automatic citizenship], as you know," Trump said Monday night while signing the order. In fact, dozens of other nations, including Canada and Mexico, have forms of birthright citizenship comparable to that in the United States.
The Trump administration's interpretation of the 14th Amendment has gained growing support among many conservative and Republican leaders.
"Birthright citizenship is simply something that's unclear from the Constitution," said Dan Stein, head of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which supports strict limits on immigration. "The problem is the 14th Amendment as currently interpreted is undermining the ability to manage immigration."
But Stein and other advocates for limiting citizenship rights of children born to migrants said it's likely this executive order will be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I don't think it's going to be resolved in this administration, frankly, because I think the Supreme Court probably is going to rule in favor of the current practice," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that also supports strict controls on immigration.
According to Stein and Krikorian, Trump's order "gets the ball rolling" on a national conversation about birthright citizenship and could eventually lead to a constitutional amendment ending the practice.
But amending the U.S. Constitution would require broad support, and a growing number of Democratic leaders, including the governors of California and New York, have signaled opposition. In a statement released Monday, after Trump signed the order, California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement saying simply, "This is unconstitutional."
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