NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today joined a coalition of 13 attorneys general in releasing the following statement in response to a preliminary injunction granted by a federal judge against President Trump’s unconstitutional Executive Order challenging birthright citizenship:

“The President and his allies made clear long before he was sworn in that they would pursue this illegal action, and our coalition was prepared to challenge it as soon as President Trump fulfilled this unconstitutional campaign promise on Inauguration Day.

“We immediately stood up for our Constitution, for the rule of law, and for families across the country who would have been deprived of their constitutional rights – and today we delivered for them. This is not yet over, and we will continue to fight every single step of the way until President Trump is permanently prevented from trampling on the Fourteenth Amendment.”

On January 20, President Trump issued an executive order to end birthright citizenship, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. To stop the President’s unlawful action, which would harm hundreds of thousands of American children and their families, Attorney General James and the coalition sued to invalidate the Executive Order. Today Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted the coalition’s request for a preliminary injunction.

Birthright citizenship dates back centuries—including to pre-Civil War America. Although the Supreme Court’s notorious decision in Dred Scott denied birthright citizenship to the descendants of slaves, the post-Civil War United States adopted the Fourteenth Amendment to protect citizenship for all children born in this country. As the coalition’s filings explain, the Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that birthright citizenship does not depend on the immigration status of the baby’s parents.

Joining Attorney General James in releasing today’s statement are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Vermont, and the City of San Francisco.