Tracking: States suing to block Trump's birthright citizenship order
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Every state with a Democratic attorney general has sued the Trump administration to block an executive order seeking to undermine the birthright citizenship protections guaranteed by the Constitution.
Why it matters: The fast, organized action marks one of the first immediate pushbacks to a project Trump championed during his campaign, which is supposed to begin within a month.
Catch up quick: Trump's order would end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents and unauthorized immigrants.
- The order also applies to parents who are in the country legally but temporarily, like foreign students, workers or tourists.
- Birthright citizenship was added to the Constitution in the 14th Amendment after the Civil War.
Zoom out: Immigrants rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, State Democracy Defenders Fund and Legal Defense Fund, also immediately filed challenges to the order.
What they're saying: Attorneys general called Trump's order a flagrant violation of the Constitution and previous Supreme Court rulings.
- "This executive order is a straightforward violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all people born on U.S. soil," North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson said in a statement.
- "For over a century, this principle has been upheld by the Supreme Court and remains a bedrock of our constitutional framework," he added.
- "We need to discuss bipartisan commonsense immigration reforms, but denying birthright citizenship, which dates back centuries and has been upheld twice by the U.S. Supreme Court, is not the solution," Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in a statement.
- "Mr. Trump has every right to implement his immigration policies, but he must do so constitutionally," Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said during a press conference. "Yet his blatant attack on birthright citizenship directly offends the Constitution."
State of play: Trump's order is meant to go into effect on Feb. 20, but advocates hope judges will put it on hold before then, the New York Times reported.
- Immigration and constitutional scholars agree that the president doesn't have the authority to change birthright citizenship via executive order.
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