How Trump's birthright citizenship order could play out in San Diego
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It's unclear how or if California and San Diego County officials will implement President Trump's executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship amid questions about its legality.
Why it matters: The order seeks to overturn the right to citizenship of U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, which stems from the Constitution's 14th Amendment and an 1898 Supreme Court ruling.
State of play: Implementing Trump's order would require procedural changes for public health departments and county clerks when issuing birth certificates, a local official told Axios.
- Currently, local public health departments, following directions from the state, do not register the citizenship or visa status of parents, Timothy Boncoskey, chief of staff for the San Diego Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk, told Axios.
- Public health departments would have to start collecting that information and providing it to county clerks for their records, as a precursor to implementing the president's order.
Context: California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the order.
What they're saying: Boncoskey said if the California Department of Public Health decided to start collecting parental citizenship information, the county clerk's office would need to reprogram its internal systems to hold the new data.
- "Then, we would issue or not issue birth certificates based on their guidance to us," he said. "We have not heard from CPDH. It's been 24 hours. We're waiting to see what happens."
The latest: A CDPH spokesperson told Axios the department does not register citizenship or visa status of parents after a birth, following California Health and Safety statutes that do not require it.
- "Any time updated guidance is required for the registration of the birth certificate CDPH will notify local registrars via an 'All County Letter,'" the spokesperson wrote in an email. "As there is no change in data required to be collected for the registration of the birth certificate, no updated guidance is required."
Flashback: San Diego's former County Clerk Ernest Dronenburg Jr. in 2013 asked the state Supreme Court to prohibit county clerks from issuing same-sex marriage licenses after it was legalized at the federal level, which the court rejected.
The intrigue: Boncoskey said County Clerk Jordan Marks would follow the direction of CPDH, and would not have any discretionary leeway.