On President Trump’s first day in office, he issued an executive order attempting to deny birthright citizenship to countless children born in the United States to noncitizen parents.
Source: N.M. Department of Justice
Albuquerque, NM — Attorney General Raúl Torrez issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today in Barbara v. Trump, reaffirming the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.
“Today’s decision reaffirms one of the clearest promises in the United States Constitution: if you are born on American soil, you are an American citizen,” said Attorney General Raúl Torrez. “The Citizenship Clause is not subject to political whims or presidential decree, it is a constitutional guarantee that has been settled law for more than 150 years. President Trump’s executive order was a blatant abuse of executive authority that sought to rewrite the Constitution with the stroke of a pen. The Supreme Court rightly rejected that effort and reaffirmed that no president has the power to strip constitutional rights from children born in this country. The rule of law prevailed today, and families across America can have confidence that this fundamental constitutional protection remains secure.”
On President Trump’s first day in office, he issued an executive order attempting to deny birthright citizenship to countless children born in the United States to noncitizen parents. States immediately challenged the order in federal court, including litigation in the District of Massachusetts that New Mexico joined. Those lawsuits successfully secured nationwide preliminary injunctions that prevented the unconstitutional order from ever taking effect.
In Barbara v. Trump, the Supreme Court considered the legality of the executive order in a challenge brought on behalf of a class of children who would have been stripped of their citizenship under the order.
Attorney General Torrez joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general and the City and County of San Francisco in filing an amicus brief explaining that the executive order violated the Citizenship Clause of the Constitution, longstanding Supreme Court precedent, and the Immigration and Nationality Act. The brief also detailed the significant legal, financial, and administrative harms the order would have imposed on states and their residents.
You must be logged in to post a comment.