MA AG Joins 17 States to Sue Trump Administration Over Order Ending Birthright Citizenship

In Boston on Tuesday, January 21st, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, along with 17 other states, the District of Columbia and the City and County of San Francisco, challenging the Executive Order that President Donald Trump signed on Monday which purports to end birthright citizenship.

The parties to the suit are requesting immediate relief to prevent the President's Order from taking effect. They seek to enjoin any actions to implement the Executive Order.

AG Campbell has characterized the Executive Order as a flagrant violation the rights of U.S. born children. It violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and U.S. Supreme Court decisions, according to the AG's office.

"The history of the Fourteenth Amendment is clear that Congress specifically intended birthright citizenship to be the law of the land, as it has been for more than 150 years," states a press release from AG Campbell's office.

“Birthright citizenship in our country is a guarantee of equality, born out of a collective fight against oppression, slavery and its devastating harms. It is a settled right in our Constitution and recognized by the Supreme Court for more than a century,” said AG Campbell. “President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights, and we will fight against his effort to overturn our Constitution and punish innocent babies born in Massachusetts.”

AG Campbell notes that under President Trump’s Executive Order more than 150,000 children born every year in the United States will lose their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as citizens and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation.

"They will have no ability obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. They will have no right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices. And they may be rendered stateless, without a clear claim to citizenship in any country," states the press release.

The lawsuit also raises the issue that if the Executive Order is effective, states will be directly harmed through the loss of federal funding for programs that they administer (e.g., Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program, foster care and adoption assistance programs) which turn at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. The administration of such programs would have to be immediately modified with little notice and at great expense, resulting in a significant burden on the agencies that operate the programs for residents.

The lawsuit is co-led by the attorneys general of Massachusetts, New Jersey and California. Joining this coalition are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai'i, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and the City and County of San Francisco.

In Massachusetts, this matter is being handled by Deputy State Solicitor Jerry Cedrone and Assistant Attorney General Jared Cohen of AG Campbell’s Civil Rights Division.

Thanks to the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell for sharing this news with Westwood Minute.

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