22 US States Sue Over Trump's Birthright Citizenship Order

Democratic-led states and civil rights groups filed a slew of lawsuits challenging US President Donald Trump's bid to roll back birthright citizenship on Tuesday in an early bid by his opponents to block his agenda in court.

- Agencies

BOSTON/WASHINGTON: After his inauguration on Monday, Trump, a Republican, ordered US agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the US if neither their mother or father is a US citizen or legal permanent resident.

Twenty-two Democratic-led states along with the District of Columbia and city of San Francisco filed a pair of lawsuits in federal courts in Boston and Seattle asserting Trump had violated the US Constitution.

Two similar cases were filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant organizations and an expectant mother in the hours after Trump signed the executive order, kicking off the first major court fight of his administration.

The lawsuits take aim at a central piece of Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown. If allowed to stand, Trump's order would for the first time deny more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States the right to citizenship, said the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell. "President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights," she said in a statement.