Two dozen Republican-led states have urged the Supreme Court to side with President Donald Trump in his argument that birthright citizenship should be curtailed. The 24 states, led by Iowa’s Brenna Bird and Tennessee’s Jonathan Skrmetti, argued in an amicus brief that the 14th Amendment, which addresses birthright citizenship, was not designed to give automatic citizenship to babies born to mothers living in the country illegally or temporarily visiting. The state attorneys wrote that they have a unique interest in seeing birthright citizenship limited because it incentivizes illegal immigration, which they said has negatively affected their states.
“Recent years have seen an influx of illegal aliens — over 9 million — overwhelming our nation’s infrastructure and its capacity to assimilate,” they wrote, adding that their states therefore face “significant economic, health, and public-safety issues from policies holding out a ‘powerful incentive for illegal migration,’ … beyond what the Citizenship Clause requires.”
Trump signed an executive order as soon as he took office declaring that newborns of certain noncitizen mothers, including those living in the country illegally, do not get automatic citizenship, unless their father is a citizen. The order was immediately met with several lawsuits. In response to judges uniformly blocking it, the Supreme Court ruled that nationwide injunctions like the ones in the birthright citizenship cases were unconstitutional. But the high court left alternatives, including class action lawsuits, in place, prompting the plaintiffs to challenge Trump’s order to bring their cases again in a way that aligned with the justices’ order. The Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on the merits of Trump’s plan.
Lower court judges have said Trump’s plan is far-fetched despite Republicans showing wide support for it. Seattle-based federal Judge John Coughenour, a Reagan appointee, chastised government attorneys during a hearing over the matter earlier this year. Coughenour said that if Trump wanted to change the “exceptional American grant of birthright citizenship,” then the president would need to work with Congress to amend the Constitution rather than attempt to redefine the amendment through an executive order.
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire did not join Friday’s amicus brief. Fox News Digital reached out to their offices for comment. Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is facing a tight race for re-election in the blue-leaning state.