Immigration advocates have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump following his executive order to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the country.
A recall that on Monday, Trump signed an executive order at the White House aimed at ending the longstanding policy of birthright citizenship.
According to a Bloomberg report, the lawsuit was filed in New Hampshire on Monday evening, just after the executive order was signed.
The move, which takes effect in 30 days, challenges over a century of U.S. policy and court interpretations of the Constitution. Trump reiterated his commitment to the controversial policy change during a briefing on Monday.
“The federal government will not recognize automatic birthright citizenship for children of illegal aliens born in the United States. We are also going to enhance vetting and screening of illegal aliens,” Trump said.
Ending birthright citizenship has been a key component of Trump’s Agenda47 policy platform, which promised to clarify the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The campaign emphasized that citizenship should apply “only to those both born in AND’subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States.”
To defend the policy, the Justice Department will need to convince courts to adopt a narrower interpretation of the Constitution, a stance supported by some conservative legal scholars.
This legal challenge could have significant implications for the interpretation of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people. Section 1 of the amendment states:
“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.”
While the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” has typically excluded children of foreign diplomats, the Supreme Court has consistently upheld birthright citizenship for children born on U.S. soil, despite multiple challenges over the years, according to the American Immigration Council.
