President Donald Trump’s executive order to cut birthright citizenship is being challenged by at least 22 states, the cities of Massachusetts, San Francisco, and the District of Columbia said Tuesday in a lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Trump of seeking to eliminate a “well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle” by executive fiat.
“The President has no authority to rewrite or nullify a constitutional amendment or duly enacted statute. Nor is he empowered by any other source of law to limit who receives United States citizenship at birth,” the lawsuit said.
On Monday, Trump promised sweeping actions to eliminate some Biden-era policies and crack down on immigration.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said during his inauguration speech on Monday. “It’s all about common sense.”
Four additional states filed a similar lawsuit and asked a federal court to keep the executive order from being implemented.
If implemented, Trump’s order would stop issuing citizenship documents to U.S.-born children of undocumented mothers or mothers in the country on temporary visas, if the father is not a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
“President Trump’s attempt to unilaterally end birthright citizenship is a flagrant violation of our Constitution,” said New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin at a press conference Tuesday. “For more than 150 years, our country has followed the same basic rule: babies who are born in this country are American citizens.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her focus is on defending Mexicans and her country’s Constitution.
“You have to keep a cool head with what he signed,” Sheinbaum said. “You have to read the decrees. In fact, we continue to study them because some of them went out very late at night and we have a team working on that.”
Sheinbaum said Trump’s executive action to prevent asylum seekers from entering the U.S. from Mexico is almost identical to the one he made in 2018.
