Raoul, Three Attorneys General File Suit to Defend Basic Constitutional Rights for All Americans
Chicago – Attorney General Kwame Raoul, with three other states, today filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s new executive order ending birthright citizenship. Attorney General Raoul and the coalition are challenging the order, arguing it violates the constitutional rights to which all children born in the U.S. are entitled.
“That one of Donald Trump’s first day in office as president should be so diametrically opposed to our values as Americans is incredibly disappointing, though not surprising. The children born in the U.S. to immigrants are entitled to the rights and privileges that go along with U.S. citizenship,” Raoul said. “We need to discuss bipartisan commonsense immigration reforms, but denying birthright citizenship, which dates back centuries and has been upheld twice by the U.S. Supreme Court, is not the solution. As Attorney General, and as the proud son of Haitian immigrants, I will continue to stand with my fellow attorneys general to defend the constitutional rights of all children born in this country.”
On his first day in office, President Trump today issued an executive order fulfilling his repeated promise to end birthright citizenship, in violation of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit asserts that the president has no authority to override the U.S. Constitution, and no constitutional provision or law empowers the president to determine who should or should not be granted U.S. citizenship at birth.
To stop the president’s unlawful action, which will harm hundreds of thousands of American children, Attorney General Raoul filed his lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, seeking to invalidate the executive order and to enjoin any actions taken to implement it. The states are requesting immediate relief through both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to prevent the president’s order from taking effect.
As Attorney General Raoul’s filing explains, birthright citizenship dates back centuries to pre-Civil War America. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of enslaved people, the post-Civil War United States ratified the 14th Amendment in 1868 to protect citizenship for children born in the country. The Immigration and Nationality Act similarly protects the U.S. citizenship of children born in the United States. Attorney General Raoul’s filing goes on to state that the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship – in 1898 and 1982 – even if a person’s parents are not U.S. citizens.
Raoul and the coalition point out, this executive order – for the first time since the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868 – means that babies born each month who would have been citizens will no longer enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizenship.
If allowed to stand, the infants stripped of their United States citizenship under the executive order will lose their most basic rights and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation. They will lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs, including their ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. They will also lose their rights to vote, serve on juries, and to secure passports. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, thousands of children will – for the first time – lose their ability to fully and fairly participate in American society as a citizen.
In addition to harming hundreds of thousands of residents, Raoul’s filing points out today’s order significantly harms the states themselves too. Among other harms, this order will cause the states to lose federal funding to programs that they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance programs, which all rely at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. States will also be required – with no notice and at considerable expense – to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change and verify a baby’s immigration status, which will place significant burdens on multiple agencies that operate programs for the benefit of the states’ residents. Raoul’s filing argues that because the order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions, states should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds.
Joining Attorney General Raoul in filing today’s lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, Oregon and Washington.
