The 14th Amendment is clear: No politician can decide who among those born in our country is ‘worthy’ of citizenship.
Yet Donald Trump’s executive order seeks to deny citizenship to countless children born in the United States – going as far as denying birth certificates and social security cards to U.S.-born infants. This brazen attack on children would deny them the right to be full members of American society and create a permanent, multigenerational subclass of potentially stateless noncitizens.
This order flies in the face of the 14th Amendment and goes against over 100 years of Supreme Court precedent. That’s why I’m calling on you, as my representative in Congress, to refuse to allow these attacks on birthright citizenship to stand. Attacks on birthright citizenship would lead to an avalanche of consequences that would have permanent repercussions for American economic, cultural, and political life.
Only citizens can vote, serve in many elected offices, and participate in numerous other ways in American life. Excluding people from those opportunities because of their parents’ immigration status is simply un-American. Every person born on U.S. soil has the right to full citizenship and to live life freely in the country where they were born. This executive order is shameful and unconstitutional, and as my representative, I hope you’ll do everything in your power to prevent enforcement.
