Attorney general signs onto amicus filing challenging executive order

Organ Mountain News report

SANTA FE - New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez joined a multistate amicus brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court defending birthright citizenship and challenging an executive order issued by President Donald Trump.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, the executive order seeks to end birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States to immigrant parents. The filing argues the order violates the Fourteenth Amendment and federal immigration law.

Several states previously filed lawsuits in federal court in Washington and Massachusetts challenging the order. Courts in both cases issued nationwide preliminary injunctions preventing the order from taking effect.

The U.S. Supreme Court is now considering the issue in a case involving a class of children who would lose citizenship under the order.

The filing states that birthright citizenship is rooted in the Fourteenth Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, and has been upheld in multiple Supreme Court decisions. Congress codified the policy in federal law in 1940 and again in 1952.

The brief also argues the order would create administrative and financial burdens for states, including potential impacts to programs such as Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, foster care and adoption assistance programs.

New Mexico joined attorneys general from more than 20 states and the City and County of San Francisco in the filing.