Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship. Now, California is suing him
On Tuesday, one day after President Donald Trump took office and signed an executive order attempting to end the constitutional right of birthright citizenship, 18 state attorneys general — including California’s Rob Bonta — and the City of San Francisco challenged the order in court.
“I am deeply disappointed that we are here one day into the administration and also not surprised,” Bonta said in a press conference announcing the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Bonta said that birthright citizenship, where a child born in this country is a U.S. citizen regardless of their parents’ citizenship status, is a “longstanding foundational right” and that Trump’s action sets “a terrifying tone” for the rest of his term.
The attorney general pointed out that the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, has already ruled in favor of the Fourteenth Amendment’s protection of birthright citizenship.
“The president has overstepped his authority by a mile, and we are holding him accountable,” Bonta said.
Should Trump’s order be allowed to stand, Bonta said, it would deny citizenship to more than 20,000 babies a year in California alone, cutting them off from access to federal benefits and programs. The order could also put at risk states’ access to federal funding from programs like Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
“Birthright citizenship is foundational to our nation’s history, to California’s history, to our very identity,” Bonta said, adding that the legal battle over that right is “done and dusted.”
Trump’s executive order came as part of a overarching approach to immigration, including declaring an emergency at the border and vowing in his inaugural address Monday to deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2025 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Trump is trying to end birthright citizenship. Now, California is suing him."