Immigrant groups and leaders of 22 Democratic-led states pushed back sharply on Friday against the Trump administration’s request that the Supreme Court lift a temporary nationwide ban blocking the president’s order to end birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents.
The filings in a trio of emergency applications came in response to the Trump administration’s emergency applications to the court in March, when the government asked the justices to step in and lift the block imposed by lower courts.
On his first day in office, President Trump declared that citizenship would be denied to babies who do not have at least one parent who is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident. That would include children born to people who crossed into the country without permission.
A brief filed by the immigrant advocacy groups said Mr. Trump had tried to end birthright citizenship by “executive fiat.” “But birthright citizenship is at the core of our nation’s foundational precept that all people born on our soil are created equal, regardless of their parentage,” the brief said.
Three federal courts, in Massachusetts, Maryland and Washington State, have blocked the order while litigation proceeds.
The birthright citizenship case is one of a number of legal battles around Trump administration policies before the justices. The court has also been asked to weigh in on the government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to summarily deport more than 100 Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador, as well as the cancellation of millions of dollars in teacher-training grants that it contends would promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and the firing of federal workers.