No Borders NewsArizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said she is supporting birthright citizenship in a U.S. Supreme Court case that challenges an executive order aimed at ending citizenship for some children born in the United States to immigrant parents.
According to the Arizona AG’s statement, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that people born in the U.S. are citizens, and the executive order would conflict with that constitutional rule and with federal immigration law. The Supreme Court is considering whether the order is valid in the case brought by children who would lose citizenship under the policy.
The statement says multiple states filed lawsuits soon after the executive order was issued, and courts issued nationwide preliminary injunctions that blocked the order from taking effect while the legal challenges proceed. The Supreme Court review is now focused on the underlying question of whether the executive order can stand.
The Arizona AG’s filing also argues that birthright citizenship has been recognized for a long time in U.S. history, and that the Supreme Court has previously upheld the concept regardless of the parents’ immigration status. It also points to Congress codifying birthright citizenship in federal law in 1940 and again in 1952.
The brief warns that if the executive order were allowed to take effect, children who would otherwise be citizens could lose access to key rights and benefits. It also says states could face major impacts, including changes to federal funding for programs that depend in part on the citizenship status of the people served, such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.