Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campell was one of 17 state attorney generals to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration Tuesday over the newly inaugurated president’s executive order to end birthright citizenship.
Campbell’s lawsuit alleges that Trump’s action violates the 14th Amendment and “flagrantly violates the rights of children born in the United States.”
“Birthright citizenship in our country is a guarantee of equality, born out of a collective fight against oppression, slavery and its devastating harms. It is a settled right in our Constitution and recognized by the Supreme Court for more than a century,” Campbell said in a statement. “President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights, and we will fight against his effort to overturn our Constitution and punish innocent babies born in Massachusetts.”
Trump’s roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday is fulfillment of something he’s talked about during the presidential campaign.
The order questions whether the 14th Amendment extends citizenship automatically to anyone born in the United States.
The 14th Amendment was born in the aftermath of the Civil War and ratified in 1868. It says: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order excludes the following people from automatic citizenship: those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.
Campbell’s office says more than 150,000 children a year may lose their ability to “become citizens, in effect removing their ability to get a Social Security number and, when they are older, work lawfully or vote.”
Campbell also alleges that states will be negatively impacted by the order.
“States will also be required—on virtually no notice and at considerable expense—to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change, which will impose significant burdens on multiple agencies that operate programs for the benefit of residents. Today’s filing explains that states should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds because the Order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions,” Campbell stated.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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