LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – California Attorney General Rob Bonta, along with 18 state attorneys general, filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Trump administration, challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order to stop recognizing birthright citizenship of children born to parents who are not lawful residents.
Bonta pointed to the case of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco-born son of Chinese immigrants, who sued all the way to the Supreme Court in 1898 when his citizenship was challenged when he tried to return home from a trip abroad.
That case set a precedent for establishing birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
“California condemns the President’s attempts to erase history and ignore 125 years of Supreme Court precedent,” Bonta said in a statement. We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The president has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”
Trump’s order would end the policy of automatically granting citizenship to people born in the U.S., a move he promised to make on the campaign trail.
The order would also cause several states to lose federal funding for programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program since the money received is based on the number of eligible recipients, according to Bonta.
He also warned that Trump’s order could “cause irreparable harm to the states and their residents” by not allowing them to work legally, vote, and obtain passports and social security numbers.
The lawsuit filing requested a preliminary injunction to prevent the executive order from taking immediate effect.
