The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to uphold its executive order ending birthright citizenship in the US.
US President Donald Trump signed the order, which denies citizenship to children of migrants who are either in the US illegally or on temporary visas, on his first day back in office in January.
The order has been blocked from taking effect by lower court judges after a series of lawsuits which argued it was unconstitutional.
The justice department filed an appeal on Friday that sought to overturn the lower courts’ decision, arguing that the rulings “invalidated a policy of prime importance” to the administration “in a manner that undermines our border security”.
It added that the injunctions rewarded “the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people”.
Supporters of birthright citizenship have argued that the order goes against the 14th Amendment to the US constitution, which states that “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”.
Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has argued the clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” means the amendment excludes children of people not in the country permanently or lawfully.
Judges in multiple district courts, including Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington state, had issued nationwide injunctions halting the order. But in June, after a challenge brought by Trump officials, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal judge cannot block a presidential order.
The decision, however, still allows judicial blocks through certain legal avenues. Judges can block the orders from taking effect for the people who sue against them while their lawsuits proceed.
The justice department has asked the Supreme Court to take up and resolve the case in its new term, which starts on October 6.
According to Pew Research, about 250,000 babies were born to unauthorised immigrant parents in the United States in 2016 – a 36% decrease from a peak in 2007.
By 2022, the latest year that data is available, there were 1.2 million US citizens born to unauthorised immigrant parents, Pew found.
But as those children also have children, the cumulative effect of ending birthright citizenship could potentially increase the number of unauthorised immigrants in the country to 4.7m in 2050, the Migration Policy Institute, a think tank, found.
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press last December, Trump said he thought the children of unauthorised immigrants should be deported alongside their parents – even if they were born in the US.
“I don’t want to be breaking up families,” Trump said. “So the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.”
By BBC News
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