Pregnant Women File Lawsuits Against Trump Over Birthright Citizenship Order.
Pregnant women across the United States are joining forces to challenge the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, filing lawsuits in Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington state, court records show. The lawsuits, which were filed in response to Trump's order issued last week, are part of an effort to protect the constitutional right to citizenship for children born in the U.S.
Trump's executive order, which has drawn criticism from legal experts, has been described as “blatantly unconstitutional” by federal judges, and it is facing significant legal hurdles. Attorneys general from 18 states, along with the cities of San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have also filed a joint lawsuit, which was submitted on January 21, 2024, in federal district court. The complaint states, “Plaintiffs bring this action to protect their states, localities, and residents from the President’s flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands of American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.”
The lawsuit argues that the principle of birthright citizenship has been a fundamental part of the Constitution for more than 150 years, referencing the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which confers citizenship on "all persons born" in the U.S. and "subject to the jurisdiction" of the country. It also highlights a Supreme Court ruling more than 125 years ago, which confirmed that children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents are entitled to automatic citizenship.
The lawsuit filed in Massachusetts against Trump and the U.S. government emphasizes that Congress has codified this understanding in the Immigration and Nationality Act and that the executive branch has long acknowledged that denying citizenship to children based on their parents' status would be unconstitutional. The complaint states, “President Trump now seeks to abrogate this well-established and longstanding Constitutional principle by executive fiat.”
In Maryland, a group of five pregnant women, alongside two immigrant advocacy groups, filed a lawsuit condemning Trump’s executive order as a “flagrant violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” The suit argues that the order undermines the fundamental right to citizenship guaranteed by the Constitution. It further states, “The President has no unilateral authority to override rights recognized in the Constitution or in federal statutes.”
Three pregnant women in Washington state—Alicia Chavarria Lopez, Cherly Norales Castillo, and Delmy Franco Aleman—filed a class-action lawsuit on January 24, 2024, along with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The suit claims that Trump’s order would leave children “stateless” and unable to be recognised as U.S. citizens. The plaintiffs argue, “Citizenship is the fundamental marker of belonging in this country,” and stress that without citizenship, these children would lack legal immigration status.
The lawsuits also name various government officials and agencies in addition to Trump, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Department of State, Attorney General James McHenry, the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Trump's executive order claims that the Fourteenth Amendment "has always" excluded individuals whose parents are in the U.S. illegally, arguing that they are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S. Requests for comment from the White House were not immediately returned.
The ongoing lawsuits highlight the broader fight over the constitutionality of the executive order, with many critics arguing that it seeks to undermine a core principle of U.S. immigration law. The legal battles are expected to continue as courts review the challenges to the controversial order.
