A bid to block Trump's cancellation of birthright citizenship is in
federal court
Send a link to a friend
 [January 23, 2025]
By MIKE CATALINI
A federal judge in Seattle is set to hear the first arguments Thursday
in a multi-state lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump’s
executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright
citizenship regardless of the parents' immigration status.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour scheduled the session to consider
the request from Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. The case is
one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of
immigrants rights groups across the country. The suits include personal
testimonies from attorneys general who are U.S. citizens by birthright,
and names pregnant women who are afraid their children won't become U.S.
citizens.
The order, signed by Trump on Inauguration Day, is slated to take effect
on Feb. 19. It could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the
country, according to one of the lawsuits. In 2022, there were about
255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country
illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the
four-state suit filed in Seattle.
The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the
principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in
the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
The lawsuits argue that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
guarantees citizenship for people born and naturalized in the U.S., and
states have been interpreting the amendment that way for a century.
Ratified in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, the amendment 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 asserts that the children of noncitizens are not subject
to the jurisdiction of the United States, and orders federal agencies to
not recognize citizenship for children who don't have at least one
parent who is a citizen .
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on birthright
citizenship in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A key case involving birthright citizenship unfolded in 1898. The
Supreme Court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco
to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the
country. After a trip abroad, he faced being denied reentry by the
federal government on the grounds that he wasn’t a citizen under the
Chinese Exclusion Act.
But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that case
clearly applied to children born to parents who were both legal
immigrants. They say it’s less clear whether it applies to children
born to parents living in the country illegally.
Trump's executive order prompted attorneys general to share their
personal connections to birthright citizenship. Connecticut Attorney
General William Tong, for instance, a U.S. citizen by birthright and
the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said
the lawsuit was personal for him.
“There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact
that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting
serious harm right now on American families like my own," Tong said
this week.
One of the lawsuits aimed at blocking the executive order includes
the case of a pregnant woman, identified as “Carmen,” who is not a
citizen but has lived in the United States for more than 15 years
and has a pending visa application that could lead to permanent
residency status.
“Stripping children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a
grave injury,” the suit says. “It denies them the full membership in
U.S. society to which they are entitled.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
