Donald Trump signs executive orders; warns Canada, Mexico of tariffs; January 6 convictions overturned

The legal pushback to Trump’s flurry of day-one executive orders has already begun, with 18 Democratic-run states lodging a court challenge to the president’s bid to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US to undocumented migrants.

The lawsuit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, contends the order was “a flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands [of] American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage”.

It was brought by attorneys-general in New York, California, North Carolina and 15 other states, along with the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco.

The US has long considered anyone born in the US to be a citizen regardless of their parents’ immigration status, and the states argue such a right is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. That amendment states: “All persons born or naturalised 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 executive order essentially contends this does not apply when the child’s mother was in the US illegally or temporarily and the father was also not a US citizen or permanent resident.

It is one of several orders expected to come before the courts as Democratic states and others resist his dramatic moves to undo much of Joe Biden’s legacy and enact his Make America Great Again agenda.

The states say people would suffer “immediate and irreparable harm” if the order is allowed to stand, with children born after February 19 this year being rendered stateless and deportable.

“They will lose the ability to access myriad federal services that are available to their fellow Americans … they will lose their rights to participate in the economic and civic life of their own country – to work, vote, serve on juries and run for certain offices.”