Maine sues Trump for rescinding birthright citizenship

In separate legal actions, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine sued the Trump administration over its executive order on Monday to rescind birthright citizenship.
“It was anticipated that the president would issue this unconstitutional block on citizenship, but that does not make it any less disappointing,” Frey wrote in a statement. “The election did not change the Constitution and legal action is required to remind the president that his oath is to uphold that sacred document, not rewrite it.”
On Tuesday, Frey, joined by 18 other states, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to invalidate the executive order on the basis that it violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Immigration and Nationality Act.
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The U.S. adopted the 14th Amendment to protect citizenship for children born in the country after the Civil War and the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship regardless of the immigration status of a baby’s parents, the attorney general’s filing explains.
The executive order President Donald Trump signed after his inauguration on Monday states that U.S. citizenship does not extend to children born to a mother who is “unauthorized” or in the U.S. on a temporary visa and whose father is not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.
On Monday night, the ACLU of Maine, along with other ACLU branches and legal organizations that fight for racial justice, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire in which they also argued the executive order violates the 14th Amendment as well as disregards congressional intent and U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Sarah Mehta, senior border policy counsel with the national ACLU, said, “We should see this latest attempt by President Trump as part of his larger campaign to terrify immigrant communities and push them to self-deport even when they have lawful status.”
Mehta called on state and local leaders to ensure their constituents feel supported and protected, such as by speaking out against the executive order and rejecting state agency action that would restrict the issuance of birth certificates and related documentation to children of immigrants.
The ACLU is also calling on U.S. Congress to reject any legislation that would codify the contents of the executive order and consider filing an amicus brief in support of the litigation.
The ACLU lawsuit was filed on behalf of three organizations with members whose children would be denied citizenship under the order: New Hampshire Indonesian Community Support, League of United Latin American Citizens, and Make the Road New York.
Harold Solis, co-legal director of Make the Road, argued the executive order would create the type of hereditary class system that the 14th Amendment was designed to prevent.
“It would create a permanent underclass of American-born individuals who would be stateless, born here but citizens nowhere,” Solis said. “It would separate families, with some siblings being citizens and others not based solely on their parents’ status at the time of their birth.”
Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said statelessness is a major concern, as it poses dangers for physical safety as well as restricts access to education and employment. Wofsy said the unprecedented nature of the order also leaves many questions about implementation unanswered, such as whether children born in the U.S. could be subject to deportation.
“The reason that children born in the United States can’t be deported generally is because they’re citizens, and so if you’re taking that away it stands to reason that they could be subject to deportation,” Wofsy said.
Karla McKanders, who heads the Thurgood Marshall Institute, which focuses on research and advocacy within the Legal Defense Fund, said the lawsuit gets at the heart of the Supreme Court justice’s vision for the namesake organization — to “challenge systems and policies that perpetuate racial injustice and inequality.”
“This is not just a legal fight,” McKanders said. “It is a moral imperative to hold our nation accountable so that our country continues to progress toward a concept of citizenship that is not grounded in racialized norms but a truly multiracial democracy.”
