A federal judge in Boston is set to deliberate on a request from 18 state attorneys general to block an executive order from President Trump that aims to eliminate birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants.
This hearing follows a recent federal ruling in Seattle, where a judge halted the executive order and criticized what he perceived as a misinterpretation of the Constitution by the Trump administration, suggesting an attempt to alter it through executive action. Prior to this, a federal judge in Maryland issued a nationwide suspension of the order in a related case involving multiple states and immigrant advocacy organizations.
In the Boston case, the coalition of state attorneys general alongside the cities of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., is requesting a preliminary injunction from Judge Leo Sorokin.
They contend that birthright citizenship is a fundamental principle embedded in the Constitution and argue that the president lacks the power to enforce this order, labeling it a blatant violation aimed at stripping the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of American-born children based solely on their parents’ status.
The attorneys general also express that the president’s directive would result in significant financial losses to states, which depend on funding to supply critical services ranging from foster care to healthcare for low-income children, as well as early interventions for infants and students with disabilities.
The lawsuits center on the 14th Amendment, which was ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War and in response to the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott ruling that denied citizenship to enslaved individuals.
The Trump administration claims that children born to noncitizen parents do not fall “under the jurisdiction” of the United States and are thus excluded from citizenship.
However, attorneys representing the states argue that these children are entitled to citizenship under existing legal precedents, specifically referencing the 1898 Supreme Court case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
This ruling established that the only exceptions to automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil were those born to foreign diplomats, enemy forces present during wartime, individuals born at sea, or members of sovereign Native American tribes.
The United States is one of approximately 30 nations that uphold birthright citizenship, known as jus soli or “right of the soil,” a practice primarily found in countries across the Americas, including notable examples such as Canada and Mexico.
