New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez joined 17 other Democratic state attorneys general Tuesday in suing to block President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
In a statement, Torrez called the order, “A direct attack on the Constitution and the fundamental rights it guarantees to every child born on American soil.”
Torrez said the joint filing by New Mexico and its partners is an effort to defend the U.S. Constitution. Referencing the Fourteenth Amendment, Torrez said, “Citizenship is not a privilege to be granted or revoked by political whim — it is a right enshrined in the very fabric of our nation.”
The amendment has long been interpreted to grant citizenship to all people born in the U.S. regardless of the parents’ nationality. Trump’s order, issued Monday, asserts that citizenship should not be automatically extended to a baby whose parents were not in the U.S. with legal or permanent status.
The states filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts Tuesday in an attempt to invalidate it as unconstitutional and block its enforcement. The group is requesting a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to keep the order from going into effect 30 days from when it was issued.
