For Immediate Release

January 31, 2025

Media Contact:
Aleisha Flores, AAJC
aflores@advancingjustice-aajc.org

Linda Paris, WLC
lparisbello1@outlook.com

Socheata Sun, OCA
socheata.sun@ocanational.org

Washington, D.C. — Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (Advancing Justice – AAJC) Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs (WLC), and OCA -Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA) announced today a new lawsuit challenging President Trump’s authority to unilaterally strip citizenship from babies born in the U.S. to parents who are here on temporary visas or are undocumented. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Within the OCA community there are parents who will be adversely impacted if this executive order goes into effect. The complaint asserts that President Trump’s executive order revoking birthright citizenship violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit maintains that the president lacks the authority to override the U.S. Constitution and define who should or should not be granted U.S. citizenship at birth – a guarantee enshrined in the Constitution since 1868. The lawsuit also highlights the history of the legal fight to affirm birthright citizenship, most notably by members of the Asian American community and in the landmark case of U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark. 

The simple bright-line rule of birthright citizenship clearly provides that all infants born on U.S. soil are citizens entitled to equal protection under law. It was codified and affirmed again with the passage of the Nationality Act of 1940.

Thu Nguyen, Executive Director of OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates stated, “It is a stunning fact that in 2025, OCA needs to go to court to prove what the Supreme Court already made clear over a century ago – children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens, regardless of race or ancestry. The principle of birthright citizenship is an ultimate expression of the American principle that our ancestry is part of who we are, but it does not determine our destiny.”

“An attack on birthright citizenship is an attack on everyone born in the U.S., not just our immigrant communities,” said John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC. “This is not the first time that Trump has shown complete disrespect for the U.S. Constitution and rule of law, but the idea that any President believes he can dictate who is and is not an American by the flick of a pen, is not only wrong, it is dangerous.”

“At its core, this executive order is not about immigration or border security,” said Joanne Lin, executive director of Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. “Rather, it is a frontal assault on the Constitution, an attempted rewrite of our national multi-ethnic identity, and a retreat backward in America’s promise of equality under law.”

A copy of the complaint can be found here.

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About OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates

Founded in 1973, OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates is a national, member-driven social justice organization of community advocates dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs). Learn more about our work at ocanational.org/about.