A day after Trump was inaugurated, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. Several immigrant rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and its state chapters, the Asian Law Caucus, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the Legal Defense Fund, also filed a lawsuit against Trump. Seventeen other states, the District of Columbia, and the city of San Francisco are part of the legal action to block the executive order.
The lawsuits argue that President Trump’s executive order violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Under the Fourteenth Amendment, all children born on U.S. soil are automatically granted U.S. citizenship, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Attorney General Bonta stated, “The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American.”
Bonta and others are asking the court to block the order from taking effect to protect the rights of American-born children. He emphasized that the order would harm states like California by risking federal funding for programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. These programs depend on the citizenship and immigration status of the children they serve. States would face challenges in modifying their administration of benefits programs swiftly to comply with the order.
Trump’s executive order is part of his broader agenda to secure the border. He expressed his support for legal immigration while signing orders related to the U.S. border with Mexico, including suspending refugee resettlement and ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the United States. Trump anticipated legal challenges to overturning birthright citizenship, describing automatic citizenship as “just ridiculous” but believed he was on “good (legal) ground” to change it.
Other states joining the lawsuit include New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
The information for this story comes from the California Attorney General’s Office.
