Two elected officials from the Houston area have joined the ongoing legal challenge against an executive order issued by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to end the longstanding precedent of birthright citizenship in the United States. Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia and Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, both Democrats, joined dozens of local government officials from several different states in signing an amicus brief filed this week in a Massachusetts federal court.
That's where Trump was sued by a group of 18 Democratic state attorneys general along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco. They argue the order by Trump, one of many executive orders the Republican president signed after he was inaugurated for a second stint in the White House on Jan.
Constitution, which grants automatic citizenship to anyone born on U. I want to make sure that we in Harris County don't let Trump turn American-born kids into second-class citizens. Trump's order, part of a broader attempt to tamp down immigration to the U.
The order was temporarily blocked last week by a federal judge in Seattle, who called Trump's move "blatantly unconstitutional," according to NPR. A spokesperson for the U. Department of Justice subsequently told NPR that Trump's administration will "vigorously defend" the executive order, adding, "We look forward to presenting a full merits argument to the Court and to the American people, who are desperate to see our nation's laws enforced.
The judge's ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by the states of Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. Garcia and Menefee signed an amicus brief filed in a separate, multi-state lawsuit being led by the state of New Jersey, which seeks a preliminary injunction against the executive order. The amicus brief references more than years of Supreme Court precedent, dating back to an ruling holding that people born on U. It also argues that changing such a precedent would create chaos for local governments such as Harris County, with Menefee saying Trump's order would be an "administrative nightmare" if it were to take effect.
