On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14160, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” a move that has since been met with immediate legal pushback and public outcry, for good reason. This order seeks to deny citizenship to children born on U.S. soil, if neithe\r parent is a citizen or a lawful permanent resident, effectively trying to undo the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause. The executive order specifically targets children born to mothers who are in the country unlawfully or on a temporary visa, such as a student, work, or tourist visa. The order faced immediate legal challenges that have led Democrat federal judges to issue injunctions to prevent it from taking effect.
Trump’s executive order is a direct attack on the U.S. Constitution and on the very soul of the nation. The 14th Amendment, ratified over 150 years ago, could not have been more clear in its grant of citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Those words alone clearly and irrefutably guarantee that any person born on United States soil is a U.S. citizen. In his attempt to redefine this clear constitutional mandate, President Trump goes far beyond his executive authority in order to challenge the rule of law.
Fortunately, the judiciary has served as a stalwart barricade. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston is just one of judges to grant a preliminary injunction, his ruling arguing that “the Constitution confers birthright citizenship broadly, including to persons within the categories described in the executive order.” Other judges in Maryland, Washington and New Hampshire have come to the same conclusion and issued injunctions of their own.
This order cannot be justified by the administration’s claim that it is designed to eliminate a so-called loophole that encourages illegal immigration. In 1868, United States v. Wong Kim Ark decided that citizenship by birth is available regardless of parents’ immigration status. The president is not only violating well-settled law by disregarding this precedent, he is promoting division and xenophobia.
Additionally, this executive order is part of a larger pattern of actions by the Trump administration that seeks to marginalize vulnerable populations and erode civil rights. With aggressive federal job cuts, the rolling back of DEI programs, the administration’s agenda seems to be designed to tear down the very concept of American society since the fall of Jim Crow, and put something rather similar in it’s place.
It is essential in these challenging times to resist such unconstitutional overreach as a nation. The ideal of America is based on the principle of equal rights and opportunities for everybody regardless of their origin. President Trump’s efforts are not only an attack on immigrants; it is an attack on the core values that make America great.
