MD Sues Trump Over Ending Birthright Citizenship

MARYLAND — Eighteen states, including Maryland, are challenging President Donald Trump's new executive order ending birthright citizenship in the United States.

“Birthright citizenship is a right enshrined in our Constitution,” said Attorney General Anthony G. Brown. “It is a reflection of our country’s ideals, a belief that every baby born on U.S. soil is a member of our great nation and deserves to play a part in its future. Ending birthright citizenship is un-American, and our Office will vigorously challenge this blatantly unconstitutional decision in court.”

Brown is taking part in a lawsuit, led by New Jersey, that seeks to block Trump's order from taking effect, saying it violates a constitutional right that has been in existence for more than 150 years.

Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Since the end of the Civil War when the United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship regardless of the immigration status of the baby’s parents.

“The individuals who are stripped of their United States citizenship will be denied their most basic rights and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation. These individuals will lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs," Brown's statement said. "They will lose their ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they will lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, the Executive Order will deprive thousands of children of their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as a citizen, with all its benefits and privileges.”

Trump’s order excludes the following people from automatic citizenship:

• those whose mothers were not legally in the United States and whose fathers were not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents; and
• people whose mothers were in the country legally but on a temporary basis and whose fathers were not citizens or legal permanent residents.

This new lawsuit, filed in Massachusetts federal court, seeks a preliminary injunction against the executive order.

“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin said.

Also joining the lawsuit were California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, as well as the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco.

Brown said Trump's order will affect states, as well.

"This Order will cause the states to lose federal funding for programs they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and foster care and adoption assistance programs, which all turn at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. States will also be required—with no notice and at their considerable expense—to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change. The states’ filing asserts that they should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds because the Order is inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions," Brown noted.

The defendants named in the lawsuit include Trump, the U.S. Department of State and Secretary Marco Rubio, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Acting Secretary Benjamine Huffman, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service and Acting Secretary Dorothy Fink, the U.S. Social Security Administration and Acting Commissioner Michelle King and the United States of America.