By Brandon Pho. San José Spotlight via Bay City News.
Santa Clara County officials have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block President Donald Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court calls the order illegal and unconstitutional. Trump issued the order just hours after taking office on Jan. 20, calling for the repeal of a 150-year-old constitutional provision that holds that anyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen regardless of the citizenship of their parents.
The 14th Amendment guaranteed birthright citizenship in 1868, as one of the post-Civil War Reconstruction amendments to address the treatment of enslaved people. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the amendment in an 1898 ruling involving a baby born in San Francisco to Chinese parents, which was filed in the same federal court as the Santa Clara County lawsuit.
The Trump administration argues that children of undocumented immigrants are not subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. law and that the 14th Amendment does not apply to children of people who are in the country illegally.
County leaders argue that Trump's order could have profound local impacts, such as denying benefits to children.
“This order is an attack on our entire community, particularly our immigrant community, and the moral fabric that allows Santa Clara County to thrive,” District 1 Supervisor Sylvia Arenas said in a statement. “All children born in the United States have the same rights of citizenship, and that is something this president cannot take away from us.”
According to U.S. Census data, Santa Clara County has one of the largest and most diverse immigrant populations of California's 58 counties. Hundreds of thousands of county residents were born outside the United States and speak a language other than English at home.
More than 60 percent of Santa Clara County children are believed to have at least one foreign-born parent. County leaders say this is the highest percentage in California and one of the highest percentages of any county in the United States.
Tony LoPresti, the county's top attorney, said Trump's order has no legal basis.
“No president has the power to enact, amend, or repeal laws, much less the Constitution itself,” LoPresti said. “This order unlawfully directs federal agencies and officials to refuse to comply with and enforce a broad range of laws that rely on the constitutional foundation of birthright citizenship.”
The county's lawsuit comes amid a chorus of other lawsuits against the order from other states. A Seattle judge imposed a temporary block on the directive through a 14-day temporary restraining order on Jan. 23.
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