California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, the opening shot of what will likely be a barrage of legal challenges from Democrats against the new Republican administration.
The lawsuit challenges Trump’s executive order, signed Monday, that seeks to end birthright citizenship, a right granted by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment to anyone born in the United States. Trump’s executive order follows promises he made on the campaign trail, part of a crackdown he intends to carry out that includes mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
A cadre of immigration rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union filed a similar legal challenge Monday in federal district court in New Hampshire.
In Bonta’s lawsuit, a coalition of states, including California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, argues that Trump’s order should be immediately blocked because it violates both the 14th Amendment and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” Bonta said in a statement. “The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Immigration experts say Trump faces a difficult road in ending birthright citizenship.
The legal protection is rooted in the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 to grant citizenship to formerly enslaved people.
The concept was challenged in 1873, when a Chinese American man named Wong Kim Ark, born in San Francisco, was denied entry to the U.S. after traveling abroad. In a 6-2 decision in 1898, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Wong, based on the rights granted in the 14th Amendment.
“Ending birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment,” San Francisco-based immigration attorney Ghassan Shamieh told The Standard. “Right in our Constitution, it clearly states that anybody born on U.S. soil is a U.S. citizen.”
During Trump’s first term in office, California filed roughly 100 lawsuits against his administration. The suits challenged Trump’s policies on immigration, 2nd Amendment rights, education, and healthcare, among other issues.
On Tuesday, Bonta said he would continue the practice of challenging Trump’s policies and is specifically looking into the president’s executive order directing the use of the military to enforce immigration laws.
In San Francisco, City Attorney David Chiu has promised to be a bulwark against Trump’s policies. In a statement Monday, Chiu said his office would analyze the president’s executive orders and “do everything in our power to protect San Francisco and our residents from illegal federal action.”
The city is a party to Tuesday’s lawsuit because of its connection to the Wong case, Chiu told The Standard.
Chiu pointed out that Trump’s order on birthright citizenship puts federal funding to state and local governments at risk.
“San Francisco receives funding based in part on the number of eligible recipients, and eligibility is determined by proof of a valid Social Security number,” said Chiu. “Without Social Security numbers, San Francisco cannot verify otherwise eligible newborns who qualify for these programs.”
Chiu said he’s also looking into an executive order Trump signed Monday that makes it official U.S. government policy that there are two genders.
According to the attorney general’s office, 24,500 children who become Americans through birthright citizenship are born in California each year.