Attorney General Lopez Challenges Unconstitutional Order Purporting to End Birthright Citizenship

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Attorney General Anne Lopez today announced that she and 18 other attorneys general are challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship, which violates the constitutional rights to which all children born in the United States of America are entitled.

“The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states in its first words that all

persons born in the United States are citizens of this nation. These words could not be

clearer,” said Attorney General Lopez. “Under our governmental system, the words of

the U.S. Constitution are inviolable, and as the Attorney General of Hawaiʻi, I will defend

the rule of law.”

President Trump yesterday issued an executive order fulfilling his repeated promise to

end birthright citizenship, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States

Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

To stop the President’s unlawful action, which violates the Constitution and will harm

hundreds of thousands of American children, Attorney General Lopez is filing suit in the

U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to invalidate the executive

order and to enjoin any actions taken to implement it.

The attorneys general requested immediate relief to prevent the President’s Order from taking effect through both a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction.

As the Attorney General’s filing explains, birthright citizenship dates back

centuries—including to pre-Civil War America. As the Attorney General’s filing also explains, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of

the baby’s parents.

If allowed to stand, this Executive Order—for the first time since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868—would mean that babies born in Hawaiʻi who would have been citizens would no longer enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizenship.

The individuals who stand to be stripped of their United States citizenship would lose

their most basic rights and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, thousands of children would—for the first time—lose their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as citizens with all its duties, benefits, and privileges.

In addition to harming hundreds of thousands of residents, the states’ filing explains that

President Trump’s order significantly harms the states themselves too. Among other

things, this Order will cause the states to lose federal funding for programs that they

administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care

and adoption assistance programs, which all turn at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served.

The Attorney Generals’ filing explains that they should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds because the Order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

States joining Hawaiʻi in today’s filing include California, Colorado, Connecticut,

Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico,

New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin, along with the

District of Columbia and the City & County of San Francisco.

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