A coalition of civil rights and immigration rights groups have sued the newly inaugurated Trump administration on Monday over an executive order signed to end birthright citizenship in the United States.
The administration was sued over President Trump’s bid to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US whose parents are unlawfully or temporarily in the country, kicking off a pitched legal fight over his immigration crackdown.
Brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, various state ACLU chapters and several other groups on behalf of immigration groups with members who are impacted by Trump’s order, the 17-page suit argues that Trump’s action violates both federal law and the US Constitution.
“For Plaintiffs — organisations with members impacted by the Order — and for families across the country, this Order seeks to strip from their children the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship, threatening them with a lifetime of exclusion from society and fear of deportation from the only country they have ever known,” attorneys for the groups wrote in the suit. “But that is illegal. The Constitution and Congress, not President Trump, dictate who is entitled to full membership in American society.”
The groups also asked a federal court in New Hampshire to declare Trump’s order unlawful and to temporarily and permanently block it.
The order signed on Monday by Trump said that the federal government will not “issue documents recognising United States citizenship” to any children born on American soil to parents who were in the country unlawfully or were in the states lawfully but temporarily.
The order said it would “apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order.”
The lawsuit filed on Monday said some of the immigration groups’ members “are currently expecting children who may be deemed to be covered by the Order.”
The executive order, the groups’ attorneys wrote, “may also render children legally or effectively stateless.”
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