By Abiola Olawale
The controversy surrounding United States President Donald Trump’s executive order, which seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants, has ignited a raging legal and constitutional battle as groups head to court, seeking to throw out Trump’s executive order.
This is as immigrants’ rights advocates on Tuesday sued the Trump administration over its executive order that seeks to strip certain categories babies that would be born in the United States of their citizenship.
The case was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of New Hampshire, ACLU of Maine, ACLU of Massachusetts, Asian Law Caucus, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and Legal Defense Fund on behalf of organizations with members whose babies born on US soil will be denied citizenship under the order.
In the lawsuit, the groups argued that Trump, through the order flouted the United States Constitution’s dictations, congressional intent, and longstanding Supreme Court precedent and affirmations on citizenship.
The groups also maintained that birthright citizenship is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
They also argued that Trump’s executive order conflicts with the established interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
It would be recalled that the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898 affirmed that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to those born in the US, even if their parents are not citizens or permanent residents.
Speaking on the development, Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, stated: “Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values. Birthright citizenship is part of what makes the United States the strong and dynamic nation that it is. This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans. We will not let this attack on newborns and future generations of Americans go unchallenged. The Trump administration’s overreach is so egregious that we are confident we will ultimately prevail.”
