"In one fell swoop, he stripped the constitutional right to citizenship who will be born on US soil, regardless of their parent's immigration status," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press conference Tuesday.
Bonta joined more than a dozen states in suing the president over the order, asking the court to grant them a preliminary injunction to block the action from taking effect while the case plays out.
"The president has overstepped his authority by a mile, and we will hold him accountable," Bonta stated.
If it is not granted, children born in the U.S. to non-citizens will not get social security numbers, passports, or other federal resources.
"Children would be forced to live under the threat of deportation," Bonta said. "The fear, anxiety, and trauma of that alone is enormously detrimental to their mental and emotional well-being."
Bonta claims the order violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States..."
In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled that the right extended to children born to immigrants in U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark.
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"The court has for a very long time at multiple levels, not just the Supreme Court, but other parts of the Federal judiciary, interpreted the law to mean that birthright citizenship is, you know, sort of guaranteed by the Constitution in the way that it's currently interpreted," UC Merced political science professor Nate Monroe said.
However, the Trump administration argues the wording of the amendment and prior court rulings offer no protection when the child's parents are in the country illegally.
"This is part of a broader appeal to a constituency that feels, rightly or wrongly, depending on your sort of political perspective, but feels frustrated about the sort of idea that there are sort of resources going to individuals that are non-citizens," Monroe explained.
"We have very good grounds. People have wanted to do this for decades," Trump said.
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