Trump executive order restricts birthright citizenship; states sue

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday that will end automatic citizenship for children whose parents are foreign nationals, whether they're here legally or not.

On Tuesday, a coalition of 18 states sued Trump and federal agencies in U.S. District Court in Massachussetts, claiming the order violates the Constitution. The ACLU filed a separate legal challenge in New Hampshire on behalf of immigrant advocacy organizations on similar grounds.

It would, they said, upend a foundational aspect of the United States of America: that anyone born here is from here.

The executive order, called "Protecting the Value and Meaning of American Citizenship, would prevent federal agencies from issuing Social Security cards, passports or welfare benefits to U.S.-born children in a sweeping reinterpretation of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States.

The order is scheduled to take effect in mid-February but could be blocked by the courts.

With the exception of the children of foreign diplomats, everyone born in the country is guaranteed U.S. citizenship, also known as "birthright citizenship," under the 14th Amendment.

Under Trump's order, after Feb. 19, U.S.-born babies must have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident in order to gain citizenship.

The order fulfills a promise made early in Trump's presidential campaign that has for years been a target for far-right organizations wishing to reduce immigration and curb immigrant rights.

The right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies estimated in 2018 that roughly 300,000 babies are born annually to mothers in the country unlawfully and argues the children of immigrants create a tax burden. The think tank, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a hate group, has argued for putting the issue in front of the Supreme Court again.

The ACLU Tuesday sued on behalf of organizations with members whose babies will be denied citizenship under the order.

“Denying citizenship to U.S.-born children is not only unconstitutional — it’s also a reckless and ruthless repudiation of American values," Anthony Romero, ACLU executive director said in a statement.

"This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history," he said, "by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the U.S. who are denied full rights as Americans."

What is birthright citizenship? A 150-year history

In the U.S., the history of birthright citizenship – and periodic challenges to it – has long been tied to the country's fraught relationship with race.

The 14th Amendment was a response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision in 1857 that determined an enslaved or formerly enslaved person was not and could never be a citizen of the United States. Scholars believe the ruling tipped the country closer to civil war, which broke out in 1861, four years later.

Congress passed the 14th Amendment in 1866, and three-fourths of states ratified it in 1868, in the war's wake.

Its first sentence sums up the citizenship right guaranteed at birth: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

A court case soon tested whether the amendment also afforded birthright citizenship to children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark, a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents challenged the government's claim that he wasn't a citizen.

The Supreme Court decided in 1898 that "children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status," according to the American Immigration Council.

More: Who is Stephen Miller, architect of Donald Trump's mass deportation plans?

Guerline Jozef, executive director of the immigrant advocacy organization Haitian Bridge Alliance, said ending birthright citizenship could create a "subclass of people who will be stateless," without a country to call home.

Hundreds of thousands of Haitians fled political upheaval and violence in their country to seek refuge in the United States in recent years and could see their rights of their future children stripped by the executive order, she said.

"The impact is so egregious," she said. "The question to America is: Is this what we want to do? Are we willing to allow the dignity and humanity of U.S.-born people to be taken from them and render them less-than? At the end of the day, that is exactly what will happen."

Lauren Villagran can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is birthright citizenship? Trump wants to end it