State Attorneys General Challenge Trump's Birthright Citizenship Executive Order

Attorneys general from 22 states filed lawsuits to stop President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship. The order questions the automatic citizenship granted by the 14th Amendment, sparking a likely complex legal battle. Critics argue it contradicts settled law and presidential limits.

Attorneys general from 22 states have taken legal action against President Donald Trump's executive order, which aims to terminate the longstanding practice of birthright citizenship. The contentious order, issued late on Monday, challenges the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to US-born children, regardless of their parents' immigration status.

This move by the Trump administration, which fulfills one of the president's campaign pledges, is expected to ignite a prolonged legal fight over immigration policies and constitutional rights. Democratic attorneys general and immigrant rights advocates maintain that birthright citizenship is entrenched law, beyond the reach of presidential edicts. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin affirmed, "The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period."

The White House, however, emphasizes its readiness to challenge the lawsuits, dismissing them as part of a broader opposition from the left. Nonetheless, the implications of the order remain contested, with key figures like Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, advocating for the constitutional protection that ensures anyone born on American soil is, unquestionably, an American citizen.

(With inputs from agencies.)