Multiple immigrant advocacy groups are suing President Trump's administration due to an executive order signed by the President restricting which children born on U.S. soil are eligible for birthright citizenship.
A lawsuit was filed against the Trump administration by The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), a Seattle-based non-profit organization advocating for three pregnant non-citizen women (and other immigrants/non-citizens in their position), reported Kiro 7. The lawsuit argues that an executive order signed by the President last week attempting to limit eligibility for birthright citizenship is unconstitutional.
A similar lawsuit has been filed by CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, advocacy groups representing four other pregnant migrant women who are concerned for the futures of their children.
"I'm 12 weeks pregnant – it's hard," said one pregnant plaintiff, a Venezuelan asylum seeker who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution, to NBC 4.
"I should be worried about the health of my child. I should be thinking about that primarily. Instead, my husband and I are stressed. We're anxious and we're depressed," she continued through a translator.
Trump signed an executive order seeking to end the current interpretation of birthright citizenship on Jan. 20. The order attempts to end jus soli, the legal principle by which those born on U.S. soil automatically become U.S. citizens, instead restricting citizenship to those born to at least one citizen parent.
Plaintiffs have indicated that this order contradicts the plain text of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Consitution.
"President Trump has no authority to amend either the Constitution or the federal law by the stroke of his pen on an executive order," said Rupa Bhattacharyya, the legal director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.
"What can I do for my child, who I'm afraid is going to be stateless?" asked a concerned pregnant plaintiff who wished to remain anonymous. "I'm afraid my child is not going to have any citizenship, not only not U.S. citizenship. How do I register my child in the United States or anywhere?"
The order has already been temporarily blocked for 14 days by Senior U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour, a Seattle-based federal judge who called it "blatantly unconstitutional."
In addition to this, various states have requested that the order be stopped under emergency halt, including Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.
Originally published on Latin Times
