22 hours ago
Last Updated:January 21, 2025, 22:14 IST
Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, said “Trump’s playbook is served by mayhem and panic”.
Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, along with ACLU and SDDF are challenging Trump’s EO revoking birthright citizenship. (IMAGE: X)
A lawsuit challenging the Executive Order (EO) signed by President Donald Trump revoking birthright citizenship was filed in a court in the US state of New Hampshire, according to the Times of India.
One of the plaintiffs is Aarti Kohli, the executive director of the Asian Law Caucus (ALC).
Kohli had earlier, in a statement released by the ALC shortly after Trump’s inauguration, said the US President “has vowed to dismantle our constitutional rights" and that there is an “aggressive, extremist campaign against immigrants, refugees, working people, union members, LGBTQ+ communities, and people of color".
Automatic US citizenship to people born in the country is enshrined in the Constitution and news agencies had said that Trump’s action is certain to face a legal challenge.
Immigrants’ rights advocates including the American Civil Liberties Union, Asian Law Caucus, State Democracy Defenders Fund, and others are those challenging the EO.
They filed a lawsuit against the EO in a US district court (District of New Hampshire).
The lawsuit accuses the Trump administration of ignoring the Constitution, congressional intent, and long-established Supreme Court rulings.
The plaintiffs argue that birthright citizenship is the principle that every baby born in the US automatically becomes an American citizen. The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees citizenship to all children born in the US, except for children of foreign diplomats. It states, “All persons born or naturalized in the US, and ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ thereof, are citizens of the US and the state where they live."
The Trump EO mandates that one of the parents has to be a US citizen or green card holder at the time of the child’s birth and says that the child’s is ineligible for birthright citizenship when the mother is either ‘unlawfully present’ in the US, and the father is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder) at the time of the child’s birth, or when the mother is ‘lawfully but temporarily in the US’ (on a visa), and the father is neither a US citizen nor a green card holder at the time of the child’s birth.
“If you’re born here, you are a citizen — period. No politician, including President Trump, can decide who is American and who is not," Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus (ALC), was quoted as saying by Times of India.
“This order seeks to repeat one of the gravest errors in American history, by creating a permanent subclass of people born in the US who are denied full rights as Americans," Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told Times of India.
Trump acknowledged the inevitability that the move to reverse a right enshrined in the US Constitution will face stiff legal challenges.
“I think we have good grounds, but you could be right," he said when asked about the pushback.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, said the 14th Amendment was “crystal clear" in granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States with the exception of children of foreign diplomats.
“We have had birthright citizenship for centuries, and a president cannot take it away with an executive order," he told news agency AFP. “We expect rapid court challenges".
Location :Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
First Published:January 21, 2025, 22:14 IST
News world Indian American-Led Org Among Those Suing Trump Admin Over Order Ending Birthright Citizenship
