Republican AGs Push Back on Birthright Citizenship Challenges

Eighteen Republican attorneys general, led by Iowa AG Brenna Bird, filed an amicus brief in an effort to push back against the challenges to President Donald Trump’s order on birthright citizenship.

The states joining Iowa are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming.

“President Trump is right: we must restore the meaning and value of American citizenship,” Bird said. “For too long, mass numbers of illegal aliens and foreign tourists—especially from China—have been entering our country just to give birth here and hand their kids American citizenship. On top of that, taxpayers are on the hook to pay for it. I’m defending President Trump’s executive order that closes the birthright citizenship loophole and eliminates the incentive for illegal immigration. No one should be rewarded for breaking the law.”

Addressing the lawsuits filed against Trump’s order, the brief says, “Plaintiffs’ incorrect interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the United States is a strong incentive for illegal immigration and birth tourism in the hope of providing children with citizenship.”

“Removing the incentive for illegal aliens to give birth in America will reduce illegal immigration. In turn, this will reduce States’ costs from illegal immigration and births by illegal aliens,” the filing adds. “Because the Executive Order is constitutional and vital, the Amici States urge the Court to deny a preliminary injunction.”

Last month, U.S. District Judge John Coughenour called the executive order “blatantly unconstitutional.”

Coughenour’s block on the order specifically addressed a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington state, although other lawsuits were also filed against the executive order.

According to Trump’s executive order, the Fourteenth Amendment “has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

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