California Attorney General Rob Bonta sues Trump over executive order to end birthright citizenship
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state would join a lawsuit in the wake of an executive order by President Trump seeking to end birthright citizenship.
The lawsuit, joined by the attorneys general of 17 other states and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, argues that the order violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
"The President's executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American," Bonta said in a statement. "We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable."
The order, signed hours after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, seeks to deny birthright citizenship to the children of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
Bonta said Tuesday that if the order were to stand, tens of thousands of children born in the U.S. each year would face possible deportation, would not be eligible for a wide range of federal benefits and would lose their ability to obtain a Social Security number.
The U.S. government has long interpreted the Constitution to mean that those born on American soil are citizens at birth, regardless of their parent's immigration status.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution 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."
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In a statement released after Trump signed the order, Bonta noted California's role in setting the precedent, citing a case brought on by Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese-American man born in San Francisco who had been denied entry back into the U.S. under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
A landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1898 affirmed his right to citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
"This is California's history. And we are ready to fight for it," Bonta said Monday.
In a separate statement, Chiu said, "As a San Franciscan born to immigrant parents, I am determined to ensure the next generation of Americans are not deprived of this constitutional right. This Executive Order will significantly harm local jurisdictions like San Francisco that stand to lose significant federal funding should the order be upheld. It will sow confusion about the legal status of numerous newly-born American citizens."
The lawsuit is expected to be one of many legal fights between the new administration and California. A persistent foe of Trump's policies, the state filed dozens of lawsuits during his first term as president.
Bonta's predecessor, Xavier Becerra, sued the first Trump administration 122 times.
Along with Bonta and Chiu, attorneys general in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, have joined the lawsuit.
