Wisconsin is one of 20 states and cities suing to block an executive order President Donald Trump signed Monday to end birthright citizenship for certain people born in the United States.
Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul on Tuesday announced the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. They argued the order, one of dozens signed by Trump on his first day in office, is clearly unconstitutional.
“The Constitution, federal law, and Supreme Court precedent all make clear that the children who would be impacted by this executive order are United States citizens,” Kaul said. “This attempt to deny them citizenship in blatant violation of the Constitution should be rejected.”
Birthright citizenship is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment, but Trump has argued it doesn’t extend to everyone born on American soil.
The lawsuit calls Trump’s order a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.” The filing argues the Fourteenth Amendment “unambiguously and expressly” bestows citizenship on those born in the country. It notes Congress codified that right in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
The filing also states if upheld, thousands of children would be at risk of deportation and lose access to a myriad of social services and the right to engage in economic and civic life in the U.S.
The filing calls the move “a policy tactic to purportedly deter immigration to the United States.”
“Despite a President’s broad powers to set immigration policy, however, the Citizenship Stripping Order falls far outside the legal bounds of the President’s authority,” it states.
Trump’s directive asserts birthright citizenship does not automatically apply in cases: “when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth” or “when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary … and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
The state GOP referred WisPolitics to the Trump administration for comment.
Along with the state of Wisconsin, plaintiffs in the lawsuit include: Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, Hawaii, Maryland, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, the District of Columbia, and the city of San Francisco. Vermont and Nevada are the only states led by GOP governors to join the lawsuit.