US Birthright Citizenship: 22 States Reject Trump's Order, Take Action
- Twenty-two (22) Democratic-led states have filed lawsuits challenging former President Donald Trump's executive order banning birthright citizenship
- The lawsuits argue that the order violates the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the US
- State attorneys general and immigrant organisations warn that the order would strip over 150,000 children annually of their rights and access to federal benefits
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United States (US) —Twenty-two (22) states have filed lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump's order to ban birthright citizenship.
After his inauguration on Monday, January 20, Trump ordered US agencies to refuse to recognise the citizenship of children born in the country if neither their mother nor father is a citizen or legal permanent resident.
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Democrats-led states reject Trump's order
Rejecting Trump's order, 22 Democratic-led states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, have headed to the court.
Reuters reported that they asserted Trump, a Republican, had violated the US Constitution.
Legit.ng gathers that the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant organisations, and an expectant mother filed two similar cases.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said:
"President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights."
She added that Trump's order, if allowed to stand, would deny more than 150,000 children born annually in the US the right to citizenship.
Legit.ng learns that losing out on citizenship would prevent those individuals from having access to federal programmes like Medicaid health insurance and, when they become older, from working lawfully or voting.
"Today's immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights," New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin also said.
The lawsuits argue that Trump's executive order violated the right enshrined in the Citizenship Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which provides that anyone born in the United States is considered a citizen.
The complaints cite the US Supreme Court's 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that children born in the US to non-citizen parents are entitled to US citizenship.
The White House has reportedly not reacted to the development.
US birthright citizenship: Nigerian analyst reacts
The order banning birthright citizenship has also attracted reactions in Nigeria. Jide Ojo, a Nigerian political analyst, spoke exclusively to Legit.ng about it.
“The executive order is against the 14th amendment of the US constitution, which has already conferred citizenship on anyone born on US soil.
“I’m constrained to think that Donald Trump is being overzealous because if the constitution already conferred nationality on any children, it didn’t say children of legal or illegal migrants, that would lead to a lot of litigations for him or against his government because an executive order is not as strong as a policy statement.
“In as much as it is against the provision of the 14th amendment, it remained dead on arrival. My challenge is that Trump is playing to the gallery to please his supporters without thinking through about the implications of some of the decisions that he has taken," Ojo told Legit.ng.
Read more about Trump's policies:
- Top Political Analyst Reacts As Trump Signs Executive Order to End Birthright Citizenship in US
- Five Donald Trump's Executive Orders That May Affect Nigeria, Others and Why
- US President Ends Birthright Citizenship: What Does It Mean for Nigerians?
Trump authorises officers to arrest migrants at churches
In another report, US immigration authorities have been given the go-ahead to arrest migrants at schools, churches, and hospitals across the country.
This was after Trump overturned policies banning immigration enforcement from so-called 'sensitive areas'.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection were restricted from arresting in sensitive areas for more than a decade.
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Source: Legit.ng
