Attorney analyzes Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship

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President Donald Trump announced an executive order to end automatic birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants.

To find out more about the issue, we were joined by attorney Roy Herrera, a founding partner at Herrera Arellano LLP.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and other Democratic Attorneys General in more than 18 states have filed two separate lawsuits to stop the executive order. Mayes’ case contends Trump’s order violates the 14th Amendment.

The amendment states “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

President Trump is attempting to end the “automatic” part of the citizenship agreement towards children born to non citizens, which conflicts with the 14th amendment.

According to Herrera, a similar situation occurred with the Chinese Exclusion Act back in 1998. There were a few limited exceptions with that, however the new executive order has not stated any exceptions.

Another part to the birthright citizenship executive order is the argument of who is subject to jurisdiction in the U.S., as it states in the 14th amendment.

“I think the argument that the Trump Administration would make is, it’s a similar thing here, where the people that are born to non citizens in the U.S. are not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S.,” Herrera said.

A federal judge in Washington state has now issued a 14-day temporary restraining order against the executive order. Herrera says the next step is there must be a decision made on if this will become a permanent injunction, as it is currently temporary.

“In the next week or so, when that gets decided, there will be an appeal that will go to the court of appeals and again ultimately, probably to the U.S. Supreme Court,” Herrera said.

Roy Herrera, Founding Partner, Herrera Arellano LLP

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