At least a dozen Democratic state prosecutors have filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the decree signed by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to end the granting of American citizenship by birthright, alleging that it represents a violation of the Constitution.
The group of state prosecutors has abounded in that this decree would go against what is stated in the 14th Amendment, which states that “every person born or naturalized in the United States (…) is a citizen of the United States and of the state in which he resides.” In addition, they consider that Trump would be exceeding his functions.
“Despite the broad powers of a president to establish immigration policy, the order of Deprivation of Citizenship falls far outside the legal limits of the president’s authority,” says the document, filed in a federal court in Massachusetts, according to CNN.
Any appeal to a potential ruling by this court would have to be made to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, where all the judges are appointed by Democrats. If the matter were to become entrenched, Trump could appeal to the Supreme Court, where Republicans hold a majority.
However, the highest US court has repeatedly upheld birthright citizenship, while Congress also passed — even before the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868 — a federal law stating that those born on US soil have the right to citizenship.
New Jersey’s Democratic attorney general, Matthew Platkin, has said that while the president “has the right to propose a political agenda that he sees fit,” when it comes to birthright citizenship, “he cannot at the stroke of a pen rewrite the Constitution and subvert the rule of law.”
Trump took office on Monday in Washington and during the first few days of his second term he signed a series of executive orders that include the revocation of dozens of policies of his predecessor, Joe Biden, measures against immigration or pardons in favor of those prosecuted for the assault on the Capitol in January 2021.
