Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 21/strong>
ABC7 News: President Donald Trump’s flurry of executive orders mere hours after being sworn in has many immigrants unsure of what to do and confused about what is to come.
Trump signed an order declaring a national emergency at the southern border and he also signed a bid to cut off birthright citizenship to children of parents who are in the United States illegally.
Twenty-two states — including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut — plus the District of Columbia and San Francisco sued in federal court to block Trump’s order.
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said Tuesday that presidents might have broad authority but they are not kings.
“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” he said.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a U.S. citizen by birthright and the nation’s first Chinese American elected attorney general, said the lawsuit was personal for him.
“The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop,” he said. “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state will do what it can to uphold birthright citizenship.
“Birthright citizenship isn’t just enshrined in our constitution, it’s key to the fundamental promise of America. While we are currently reviewing specifics of the executive orders issued by President Trump today, New York is prepared to take any action within our power to ensure that those born in our state have all the rights and protections that prior generations of new Americans have been granted,” New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
