FILE PHOTOS
LOS ANGELES – California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading the state’s fight against President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
Bonta announced Tuesday the state is filing a lawsuit seeking to block the executive order.
The lawsuit – joined by 21 other states and San Francisco – argues that the order violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“The President’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American,” The Filipino American attorney general 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.”
Bonta said Trump “has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.”
Under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, all children born on US soil are automatically granted US citizenship and the rights and privileges that come with it.
In 1898, the US Supreme Court affirmed this right in a case brought by Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco-born, Chinese-American man who had been denied his re-entry rights after a trip abroad.
“As home of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native who fought – successfully – to have his US citizenship recognized, California condemns the President’s attempts to erase history and ignore 125 years of Supreme Court precedent,” Bonta said.
Within hours of taking office, the President issued an executive order “disregarding the US Constitution and this long-established precedent,” Bonta said.
The order directs federal agencies to deny the citizenship rights of American-born children whose parents are not lawful residents.
The order instructs the Social Security Administration and Department of State, respectively, to cease issuing social security numbers and US passports to these children, and directs all federal agencies to treat these children as ineligible for any privilege, right or benefit that is reserved by law to individuals who are US citizens.
“If allowed to stand, the order would strip tens of thousands of children born each year of their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as rightful citizens, with all the benefits and privileges,” Bonta said.
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