Rhode Island and more than a dozen states are challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, a move the president said on the campaign trail he would do once in office.
R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha on Tuesday said he is joining a group of 22 states the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, led byNew Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin, in filing a lawsuit blocking Trump’s order.
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Neronha said Trump’s unprecedented but expected move seeks to deny citizenship to Americans who would lawfully reside here, pay taxes here, raise their families here, and contribute to the extraordinary fabric of this country.
“With the exception of indigenous peoples and the descendants of enslaved peoples, the Unites States is a nation of descendants of immigrants, many of whom risked their lives for the promise of a better life. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no matter your family’s country of origin, if you are born here, this is your home, this is your country,” Nerhona said in a statement. “If allowed, this executive order will have far-reaching economic, social, and human rights ramifications, the full extent of which we can’t know.”
Platkin and immigrants rights advocates point to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says people born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens, saying it’s clear that it applies to people whose parents were not legally citizens at the time of their birth.
Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts along with other immigrant rights advocates filed a suit in New Hampshire federal court.
The suit asks the court to find the order to be unconstitutional. It highlights the case of a woman identified as “Carmen,” who is pregnant but is not a citizen. The lawsuit says she has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent status. She has no other immigration status, and the father of her expected child has no immigration status either, the suit says.
“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a grave injury,” the suit said. “It denies them the full membership in U.S. society to which they are entitled.”
Trump’s roughly 700-word executive order, issued late Monday, amounts to a fulfillment of something he’s talked about during the presidential campaign. But whether it succeeds is far from certain as immigration advocates file lawsuits to block the president.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.
It’s been in place for decades and enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.
The order questions that 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.
It goes on to bar federal agencies from recognizing the citizenship of people in those categories. It takes effect 30 days from Tuesday, on Feb. 19.
(UPDATE: Adds 22 states have joined lawsuit in 2nd paragraph)
Mike Catalini is a writer for The Associated Press.
