Attorney General Tong Sues President Trump to Block Unconstitutional Attack on Birthright Citizenship

Press Releases

01/21/2025

Attorney General Tong Sues President Trump to Block Unconstitutional Attack on Birthright Citizenship

(Hartford, CT) – Minutes ago, Attorney General William Tong and the attorneys general of 17 other states, the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco sued President Donald Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, challenging the lawless executive order ending birthright citizenship, eviscerating clear constitutional rights to which all children born in the U.S. are entitled.

For Attorney General Tong, this fight is personal. Born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1973, he became the first United States citizen in his immediate family by right of his birth on American soil. He was the first Asian American elected to state office in Connecticut history, and the first Chinese American to be elected Attorney General in the nation.

President Trump yesterday issued an executive order fulfilling his repeated promise to end birthright citizenship, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Attorney General Tong is filing suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, seeking to invalidate the executive order and to enjoin any actions taken to implement it. The states request immediate relief to prevent the President’s Order from taking effect through both a Temporary Restraining Order and a Preliminary Injunction.

“This is a war on American families waged by a President with zero respect for our Constitution. We have sued, and I have every confidence we will win. 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. 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. Abolishing birthright citizenship will cause chaos across Connecticut and the United States, with babies born here lacking legal status anywhere, imperiling their future careers, education, healthcare, and more in the only country they will have known. My parents and grandparents ran for their lives, they fled war and hunger and ultimately made it to Connecticut with nothing. They worked until their bodies broke in the hot kitchens of Chinese restaurants so that I could become the first American born in my family—a citizen by right of my birth here in Hartford, Connecticut. My life would not be possible without birthright citizenship. This is the core of the American dream, and part of the essential character of our nation. We knew this fight was coming, and we are prepared,” said Attorney General Tong.

Birthright citizenship has its roots in slavery and pre-Civil War America. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves, the post-Civil War United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizenship for children born in the country. The U.S. Supreme Court has twice upheld birthright citizenship, regardless of the immigration status of the baby’s parents, including in the 1898 case involving Wong Kim Ark, born more than a century ago in San Francisco to Chinese parents working to build the transcontinental railroad.

If allowed to stand, this Executive Order—for the first time since the Fourteenth Amendment was adopted in 1868—would mean that 7,400 babies born each year in Connecticut who would have been citizens will no longer enjoy the privileges and benefits of citizenship.

The individuals who are stripped of their United States citizenship lose their most basic rights, and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation. These individuals will lose eligibility for a wide range of federal benefits programs. They will lose their ability obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. And they will lose their right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices. Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, thousands of children will—for the first time—lose their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as a citizen with all its benefits and privileges.

In addition to harming hundreds of thousands of residents, the States’ filing explains that the order significantly harms the States themselves too. Among other things, this Order will cause the States to lose federal funding to programs that they administer, such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and foster care and adoption assistance programs, which all turn at least in part on the immigration status of the resident being served. States will also be required—on no notice and at its considerable expense—to immediately begin modifying their operation and administration of benefits programs to account for this change, which will require significant burdens for multiple agencies that operate programs for the benefit of the States’ residents. The States’ filing explains that they should not have to bear these dramatic costs while their case proceeds because the Order is directly inconsistent with the Constitution, the Immigration and Nationality Act, and two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

States joining Connecticut in today’s filing include California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Vermont, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia and City of San Francisco.

Twitter: @AGWilliamTong

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Media Contact:

Elizabeth Benton
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