California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined more than a dozen other state attorneys general in challenging the constitutionality of an executive order redefining birthright citizenship, issued by President Donald Trump on the first day of his second term.
The order—set to take effect on Feb. 19—directs all agencies not to issue citizenship documents for people whose mothers were not lawfully present in the country and whose fathers were not citizens or lawful permanent residents at the time of birth, nor for an individual whose father was not a citizen or lawful permanent resident and whose mother’s presence was lawful but temporary.
The Social Security Administration and the Department of State will no longer issue Social Security cards and passports to individuals who do not qualify for citizenship based on the new rules.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a three-word response after Trump announced his action.
Those challenging the action in court allege that the law violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and pointed to an 1898 ruling from the Supreme Court, in U.S. vs. Wong Kim Ark, as evidence that courts should block the law before it takes effect.
In that case, the court ruled that the Citizenship Clause in the Constitution conferred citizenship to those born in the country whose parents are “resident aliens.”
Both sides are pointing to the 14th Amendment as proof that their arguments are valid, with a difference of opinions on how best to interpret the clause that reads “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.”
Bonta and other attorneys general say the clause includes all people born in the country, while Trump and his supporters point to the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” and argue that it does not apply to those who are not lawfully in the country.
If enacted, tens of thousands of children born in the country—including an estimated 24,500 in California—to illegal immigrants could “be forced to live under the threat of deportation” and lose access to benefit programs, according to a statement from Bonta’s office.
The complaint also alleges that the law would cause “irreparable harm” to California and other states by risking a loss of federal funding for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs, among others, as the programs have conditions related to citizenship and immigration status.
In addition to Bonta, attorneys general from Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin, along with the cities of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., joined together to request the preliminary injunction.
When asked by reporters while signing the order whether he expected legal challenges, the president shrugged off the notion and said he’s confident the law will stand.
“We think we have very good ground,” Trump said. “People have wanted to do this for decades.”
