CHICAGO – Attorney General Kwame Raoul defended birthright citizenship in the ongoing multistate lawsuit against the Trump administration’s executive order purporting to redefine birthright citizenship to exclude certain children born to non-citizen parents. Attorneys representing Illinois, Arizona, Oregon and Washington argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Wednesday in the states’ lawsuit challenging the executive order.
It was the first case against the order to be heard in an appeals court since a district judge in February deemed the order “blatantly unconstitutional” and granted a nationwide preliminary injunction against its implementation while the case proceeds. The administration appealed to the 9th Circuit in an effort to overturn the injunction.
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“As a birthright citizen myself, born to an immigrant mother not yet naturalized at the time, the fight to preserve birthright citizenship is a personal one,” Raoul said. “As Attorney General, I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and to protect the rights of all Illinois residents. I am proud to stand with my colleagues to defend the 14th Amendment, which was enshrined in our Constitution more than 150 years ago.”
The coalition argues that the executive order violates the 14th Amendment and the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. As the complaint explains, and as the district court in this case held, the president has no authority to override the Constitution, and no law empowers him to determine who should be granted citizenship at birth.
If allowed to stand, the executive order would cause thousands of newborns and children in Illinois each year to lose out on their constitutionally protected right to citizenship. This would include not only babies born to undocumented parents, but also babies born to individuals who are here on valid visas for work or study. Unlawfully stripping U.S. citizens of their right to citizenship would impact their ability to vote, travel abroad, secure housing, access health care, seek employment, run for public office, serve on juries and, more generally, participate fully in American society.
The executive order would also cause irreparable harm to Illinois and other states where those citizens live. Illinois administers numerous programs to support the health and welfare of its residents. Many of those programs are supported by federal funding, which will be lost if the executive order takes effect.
The lawsuit is one of several challenging the birthright citizenship order that have resulted in judges issuing nationwide preliminary injunctions. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments at the administration’s request over whether the preliminary injunctions in those cases should apply only to the plaintiff states and individuals who filed private lawsuits. The Supreme Court has not yet issued a decision, but anything less than a nationwide halt on the illegal order would cause chaos in the plaintiff states and the rest of the country.
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