Supreme Court ruling creates confusion around birthright citizenship as Trump escalates attacks on immigrants

While last week’s ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court failed to directly address the constitutionality of birthright citizenship, Trump’s executive order attempting to change a right long understood to be guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution will lead to chaos and confusion in some parts of the country.

We believe the attempt to deny birthright citizenship will eventually be found to be unconstitutional in the long run, but in the short term Trump still has the ability to implement an unconstitutional EO in states where there is no court challenge.

Fortunately, Colorado does not fall into that category. The state has filed suit against the Trump administration over the order, so it will not be implemented here. Voces Unidas has met with the Colorado’s Attorney General and our central mountains state legislators to express the need to continue to challenge Trump in court and potentially legislate in the next session as this new phase of the battle gets underway.

Trump’s “Justice” Department, meanwhile, is escalating its attack on immigrants, announcing on Monday that it’s directing its attorneys to aggressively prioritize cases to revoke citizenship of naturalized citizens who commit certain crimes. The move targets U.S. citizens who were not born in the country, a population totaling about 25 million people.

This latest effort to strip some Americans of their U.S. citizenship further demonstrates the lengths the administration is willing to go to assail America’s immigrant community. 

We vow to continue our efforts to defend the civil rights of our community.