Donald Trump sued within hours of becoming president
Campaigners have launched a legal challenge within hours of President Donald Trump‘s executive order to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S.
Newsweek sought email comment from the White House on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
Trump’s move against birthright citizenship is poised to be the most controversial of his inauguration day moves and will likely lead to a long battle in the courts.
What To Know
Donald Trump marked his return to the White House on Monday with a series of immigration-related executive orders, including an order ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrants without legal status.
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Birthright citizenship is the principle that every baby born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. The Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees the citizenship of all children born in the United States, with the exception of children of foreign diplomats.
Specifically, it states that “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 executive order declares that a child born in the United States is not a citizen if, at the time of birth, their mother is either “unlawfully present in the United States” or their “mother’s presence in the United States was lawful but temporary,” and their father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
Trump’s order directs the secretary of state, the attorney general, the secretary of homeland security, and the commissioner of social security to implement its terms. The order specifies that it will apply to persons born 30 days from its issuance.
A legal challenge to the order is being taken in New Hampshire federal court by New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, The League of United Latin American Citizens and the campaign group Make The Road, New York.
They are suing on behalf of a number of people, including an Indonesian woman and her husband who arrived in the U.S. in 2023 and applied for asylum. The woman is in her third trimester and is concerned her child would be denied citizenship.
The plaintiffs want the New Hampshire federal district court to “declare that the Executive Order is unconstitutional and unlawful in its entirety; preliminarily and permanently enjoin defendants from enforcing the Executive Order; Require Defendants to pay reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs and grant any other and further relief that this Court may deem just and proper.”
What People Are Saying
Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement: “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.”
The Brennan Center For Justice said it was highly unlikely that Trump’s executive order will survive judicial scrutiny.
Attorney Thomas Wolf, the center’s Director of Democracy Initiatives, wrote on its website: “President Trump claimed to end birthright citizenship on the first day of his second term. Trump’s executive order is unconstitutional, in direct conflict with the plain language of the 14th Amendment and over a century’s worth of Supreme Court case law. It will be litigated immediately and its prospects of surviving those court fights are slim, even before a Supreme Court stacked with conservative justices and Trump appointees.”
What Happens Next
The court will give the Trump administration an opportunity to reply in writing to the lawsuit before beginning the process of considering the merits of the case.
As the challenge is being taken in a federal district court, it is likely to go to a federal appeals court and, given the seriousness of the case, it is likely that the Supreme Court will hear the case.