On the President’s first day of his second term in office, he signed an executive order seeking to strip birthright citizenship from babies born in the U.S. to immigrant parents. Hours later, Brazilian Worker Center (BWC), La Colaborativa, and expectant mothers, represented by Lawyers for Civil Rights, filed a lawsuit challenging the executive order’s constitutionality.
This was the first lawsuit (Doe v. Trump) to block the executive order. In the suit, our partner BWC and their co-plaintiffs argued that no executive order can erase the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, and emphasized that the executive order’s implementation would result in irreparable harm to affected children and families.
Lenita Reason, Executive Director of BWC, asserted, “By filing this lawsuit, we promised our community that we would not stand by and watch their fundamental rights be stripped away.” They secured a preliminary injunction in Massachusetts, which was later affirmed by the First Circuit. This protected BWC and La Colaborativa members and expectant mothers from the executive order while the issue made its way to the Supreme Court.
Last month, the Supreme Court issued an important ruling, striking down the executive order and upholding the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution’s guarantee that every child born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. In the words of Lenita Reason, “This landmark ruling hands the administration a final, decisive loss on one of its top priorities and ensures that our children’s fundamental rights remain fully protected… Today’s ruling is a beautiful affirmation that our children belong, their rights are non-negotiable, and the U.S. Constitution protects all of us no matter our background… Together, we have proven that when we stand united to defend our civil rights, justice prevails.”
Lawyers for Civil Rights Birthright Citizenship Factsheet. See links to the legal challenges at the bottom.
