We are proud to announce that the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (“WLC”), along with our client OCA -Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA) and co-counsel Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC), have filed a lawsuit challenging the President’s attempt to unilaterally strip citizenship from babies born in the U.S. to parents who are on lawful temporary visas or are undocumented. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
The complaint asserts that the executive order eviscerating birthright citizenship violates the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit maintains that the president lacks the authority to override the Constitution and to define who should be conferred citizenship at birth – a guarantee enshrined in the Constitution since the ratification of the 14th amendment in 1868. The simple bright-line rule of birthright citizenship, with very limited exceptions, clearly provides that all infants born on U.S. soil are citizens entitled to equal protection under law.
Birthright citizenship was later affirmed by the Supreme Court in the landmark 1898 decision U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, holding that a Chinese man born on U.S. soil was a citizen at birth under the Constitution, without regard to ancestry. Birthright citizenship was later codified and affirmed again with the passage of the Nationality Act of 1940. For well over a century, birthright citizenship has been the settled law of the land — affirmed by Congress, the courts, and all presidents regardless of political party – up until now.
It is a stunning fact that in 2025, we need to go to court to prove again what the Supreme Court made clear 127 years ago in Wong Kim Ark – namely that all infants born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens.
Patently unconstitutional on its face, the executive order aims to strip U.S. citizenship from any child born on U.S. soil whose mother is “unlawfully present” or lawfully present on a temporary basis and whose father is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident. If allowed to go into effect, the executive order would inflict profound lasting injury on untold numbers of immigrant families whose children, though born in America, would not be recognized as American. Furthermore, the executive order would lead to the creation of a permanent, multi-generational underclass of people who would be barred from accessing the benefits of citizenship (voting, work authorization, benefits) and would therefore be denied full participation in our society, economy, and democracy.
At its core, this executive order is not about immigration or border security. Rather, it is a frontal assault on the Constitution, an attempted rewrite of our national multi-ethnic identity, and a retreat backward in America’s promise of equality under law.
We are very proud of the litigation team that has been working around the clock since Jan. 20 including WLC attorneys Kaitlin Banner, Sarah Bessell, and Maddy Gates, and a team of Arnold & Porter partners led by John Freedman (WLC executive committee board member).
Read more here.