CALIFORNIA – California attorney general Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship beginning February 19, 2025.
The order seeks to limit automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to parents who are undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors.
The executive order is not retroactive.
California along with 17 other states argue that the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause has long been interpreted to grant citizenship to all individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
“Only those not fully subject to United States law fail to acquire U.S. citizenship by virtue of being born on U.S. soil,” said the court document.
The court document says birthright citizenship doesn’t apply to children of foreign diplomats or those born on foreign ships, as they are not fully under U.S. law. It also excludes children of foreign enemies during a military occupation.
Bonta says Trump’s executive order falls outside the legal bounds of the President’s authority.
Trump says citizenship isn’t automatically given to people born in the U.S.
The Trump Administration challenges the traditional understanding of birthright citizenship.
They say the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the Citizenship Clause should be interpreted to exclude not only children of foreign diplomats but children of undocumented immigrants or temporary visitors.
According to Trump’s executive order U.S. citizenship isn’t automatically given to people born in the U.S. if:
- Their mother was in the U.S. illegally when they were born, and their father wasn’t a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
- Their mother was in the U.S. legally for a temporary stay (like on a tourist, work, or student visa), and their father wasn’t a U.S. citizen or permanent resident.
Trump says the 14th Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship individuals born in the United States who are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Supreme Court case claimed Black Americans weren’t U.S. citizens
Critics argue that Trump’s executive order reinterprets the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and echoes the Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857) case.
In the case, the Supreme Court ruled that an entire class of people – Black Americans, could never be U.S. citizens, even if born on U.S. soil. This exclusion was based on race and social status, denying the concept of universal birthright citizenship.
The 14th Amendment was explicitly designed to overturn the Dred Scott decision and aimed to create an inclusive definition of citizenship.
Both the Dred Scott decision and Trump’s new rule question who gets to be a U.S. citizen, leading to debates about who counts as an American under the Constitution.
Directs federal agencies to deny citizenship rights
Trump’s executive order also directs federal agencies to deny ‘documents recognizing United States citizenship’ to American-born children whose parents are not lawful residents.
“They would lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs. They would lose their ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they would lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices,” said Bonta.
Bonta says they are asking a court to immediately block the order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds.
To read the full complaint visit https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/2025%200121%20Complaint.pdf
