On Tuesday, Oregon became the latest Democratic-led state to sue the Trump administration for its attempts to revoke birthright citizenship nationwide.
Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he and the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, and Washington filed a lawsuit to overturn President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits birthright citizenship, arguing that it infringes on the constitutional rights of all American-born children. Officials contend that the Trump administration’s attempt to abolish birthright citizenship is a blatant violation of the U.S. Constitution in a separate lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston on Tuesday by a coalition of 18 Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia, and the city of San Francisco.
It is blatantly against the US Constitution for the government to try to circumvent the Fourteenth Amendment. According to Rayfield’s statement, if this order is upheld, it will violate decades of established law that have contributed to the safety and well-being of children. Although the President is fully authorized to issue executive orders while in office, this authority does not include enacting laws that violate our fundamental rights.
Hours after taking office on Monday, Trump signed a number of executive orders, one of which ending birthright citizenship. His pledge to implement a significant crackdown on immigration includes a number of them.
According to the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, anybody born in the United States is automatically guaranteed birthright citizenship. According to the American Immigration Council, birthright citizenship began in 1898 when the Supreme Court upheld the idea in a case that made it clear that children born in the United States to immigrant parents are citizens regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
According to the lawsuit, in 2022 alone, an estimated 1,500 children were born to two undocumented parents in Oregon, and an additional 2,500 children who were U.S. citizens were delivered to moms who did not have legal status. Illinois, Arizona, and Washington, the other plaintiff states, have higher estimations.
According to the lawsuit, in 2022, approximately 153,000 children were born to two undocumented parents nationwide, and approximately 255,000 children were delivered to undocumented moms.
According to the lawsuit, these figures suggest that over 12,000 babies born in the US each month who are eligible for citizenship—including over 1,100 babies born in the Plaintiff states—will no longer be regarded as US citizens under the Citizenship Stripping Order and will be left without any immigration status.
The lawsuit claims that these are conservative estimates and that the true number of people affected is probably larger.
According to the lawsuit, babies born in the nation and deprived of their citizenship would effectively be citizens of no nation at all and would be vulnerable to deportation or detention.
In a recent interview with reporters, Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center and a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, stated that one of the reasons birthright citizenship is protected by the U.S. Constitution is to ensure that it is not influenced by shifting political tides.
According to her, a constitutional amendment is necessary to alter the interpretation of the Constitution, and an executive order that attempts to do so is clearly unconstitutional.
The complaint aims to nullify the executive order issued by the Trump administration and was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Through a temporary restraining order, the plaintiff states have asked for immediate injunctive relief to stop the executive order from going into effect.
The initiative is being spearheaded by Washington.
According to the lawsuit, the consequences of a citizenship stripping attempt would extend beyond those who would be directly affected and result in monetary losses for the states where the affected individuals reside.
It is also anticipated that other states and immigrant advocacy groups would file lawsuits against the Trump administration over birthright citizenship. The U.S. Supreme Court may eventually hear cases involving that issue and other Trump initiatives.
— Investigative journalist Yesenia Amaro focuses on communities of color and societal issues. You can contact her at [email protected] or 503-221-4395.
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