Four Democratic-led states are to appeal to a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday to bar the US President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing an executive order that curtails the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States.
Senior US District Judge John Coughenour will listen to arguments by Democratic state attorneys general from Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon. They are asking for a temporary restraining order to prevent the Trump administration from implementing an important part of its immigration crackdown.
What does the Order say?
The executive order, signed by Trump on Monday after taking office, directs US agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the US if neither parent is a US citizen or legal permanent resident. This order has already sparked five lawsuits, with civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states calling it flagrantly unconstitutional. The White House has not responded to requests for comment.
Of all the litigation, the one in Seattle is gaining pace the quickest. It’s before Judge Coughenour, an appointee of Ronald Reagan, who served as President under the banner of the Republicans. Without that court intervention, kids born after Feb 19 whose parents are non-citizens or lawful permanent residents will be placed on the road to being deported and cut off from any kind of social security number, social welfare benefits and work legally with growing age.
Argument against the Order
The Democratic-led states argue that more than 150,000 newborn children would be denied citizenship annually if Trump’s order is allowed to stand. They contend that the executive order violates the citizenship clause of the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.
Democratic state attorneys general point out that the meaning of the citizenship clause was settled 127 years ago when the US Supreme Court held that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are US citizens. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, reversed the Supreme Court’s infamous 1857 Dred Scott decision, which ruled that the US Constitution did not apply to enslaved Black people.
This would make the result of this lawsuit of huge consequences to the future of birthright citizenship in the United States.