Attorney General Neronha challenges unconstitutional executive order ending birthright citizenship

Published on Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha announced today that he is joining 19 other Plaintiff states in challenging President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship.

“On day one, President Trump moved to use executive power to effectively amend the Constitution in an unprecedented, but not unexpected manner,” said Attorney General Neronha. “With the exception of indigenous peoples and the descendants of enslaved peoples, the Unites States is a nation of descendants of immigrants, many of whom risked their lives for the promise of a better life. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no matter your family’s country of origin, if you are born here, this is your home, this is your country. With this executive order, the President seeks to deny citizenship to Americans who would lawfully reside here, pay taxes here, raise their families here, and contribute to the extraordinary fabric of this country. If allowed, this executive order will have far-reaching economic, social, and human rights ramifications, the full extent of which we can’t know. Now is the time to come together as Americans and protect our fellow citizens, regardless of our differences, and because of our differences. In the meantime, we will work tirelessly to defend birthright citizenship, as enshrined by the Constitution.”

President Trump yesterday issued an executive order fulfilling his promise to end birthright citizenship, in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Attorney General Neronha is filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to invalidate the executive order and to enjoin any actions taken to implement it. Rhode Island and the other Plaintiff states request immediate relief to prevent the President’s Order from taking effect through both a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction.

As the Attorney General’s filing today explains, this executive order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Birthright citizenship dates back centuries – including to pre-Civil War America. Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of enslaved persons, the post-Civil War United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizenship for children born in the country. As the Attorney General’s filing also explains, the U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the individual’s parents. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, if this executive order is allowed to stand, thousands of children will – for the first time – lose their ability to fully be a part of American society as a citizen with all the benefits and privileges that citizenship provides.

Further, this order will result in cuts to federal funding programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and foster care and adoption assistance programs. States will also be required to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change, which will significantly burden the responsible agencies. For this reason, we are seeking an immediate injunction as states should not have to bear these costs while their case proceeds.

In Rhode Island, this matter is being handled by Solicitor General Katherine Connolly Sadeck of the Office of the Attorney General.

Joining Rhode Island in today’s filing are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Vermont, Wisconsin, and the City of San Francisco.

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