Deplorable:
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers this week joined 17 other states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
Hilgers
JUSTIN WAN, LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
A longtime federal judge in Seattle last month called it “blatantly unconstitutional” and temporarily blocked it from going into effect in a case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.
And on Wednesday, in a case brought on behalf of five pregnant immigrants and two immigrant rights groups in Maryland, a federal judge there did the same, saying “no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation” of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.
The earlier decision already is being appealed.
Furthermore, during a Thursday hearing in Seattle, a federal judge granted Washington state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the birthright citizenship order, preventing the federal government from denying birthright citizenship to children of immigrants.
In the meantime, in a filing Monday in the Washington case, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan, who aren’t parties to the case, asked for leave to file a so-called amicus brief on behalf of Iowa, Nebraska and 16 other states because of the potential ramifications a decision in the case will have in their states.
Unlike the plaintiff states, Bird said they contend the U.S. Constitution permits “reasonable limits” on the United States’ grant of birthright citizenship and face “unique harms if systems that encourage illegal immigration and birth tourism continue unabated.”
“The harms to the states, including the significant financial harms associated with education and health care, accrue quickly,” Bird wrote.
While Hilgers’ office regularly sends out press releases when Nebraska joins in filings like the one Monday — including one as recent as Jan. 30 in a challenge to California’s regulation of the pork industry — there was no mention of the birthright citizenship case among its emails as of Wednesday.
Asked about his decision to join in the filing, Hilgers told the Journal Star in an email: “Our immigration system is broken, in part because of the idea that the child of any person who is here illegally, under nearly any set of circumstances, receives the privilege of United States citizenship so long as they are born here.
“This is mistaken, as explained in President Trump’s executive order,” the attorney general wrote.
Trump’s order, signed on the first day of his second term, directed federal agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents or recognizing U.S. citizenship of children born to parents in the country unlawfully or lawfully in the country on temporary visas.
It had been set to go into effect Feb. 19, prior to the injunctions, which apply nationwide.
Hilgers said Nebraska stands with Iowa and our sister states in “defending the executive order, and have urged the court to adhere to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
omaha.com
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers this week joined 17 other states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
Hilgers
JUSTIN WAN, LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR
A longtime federal judge in Seattle last month called it “blatantly unconstitutional” and temporarily blocked it from going into effect in a case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.
And on Wednesday, in a case brought on behalf of five pregnant immigrants and two immigrant rights groups in Maryland, a federal judge there did the same, saying “no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation” of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.
The earlier decision already is being appealed.
Furthermore, during a Thursday hearing in Seattle, a federal judge granted Washington state’s request for a preliminary injunction against the birthright citizenship order, preventing the federal government from denying birthright citizenship to children of immigrants.
In the meantime, in a filing Monday in the Washington case, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wessan, who aren’t parties to the case, asked for leave to file a so-called amicus brief on behalf of Iowa, Nebraska and 16 other states because of the potential ramifications a decision in the case will have in their states.
Unlike the plaintiff states, Bird said they contend the U.S. Constitution permits “reasonable limits” on the United States’ grant of birthright citizenship and face “unique harms if systems that encourage illegal immigration and birth tourism continue unabated.”
“The harms to the states, including the significant financial harms associated with education and health care, accrue quickly,” Bird wrote.
While Hilgers’ office regularly sends out press releases when Nebraska joins in filings like the one Monday — including one as recent as Jan. 30 in a challenge to California’s regulation of the pork industry — there was no mention of the birthright citizenship case among its emails as of Wednesday.
Asked about his decision to join in the filing, Hilgers told the Journal Star in an email: “Our immigration system is broken, in part because of the idea that the child of any person who is here illegally, under nearly any set of circumstances, receives the privilege of United States citizenship so long as they are born here.
“This is mistaken, as explained in President Trump’s executive order,” the attorney general wrote.
Trump’s order, signed on the first day of his second term, directed federal agencies to stop issuing citizenship documents or recognizing U.S. citizenship of children born to parents in the country unlawfully or lawfully in the country on temporary visas.
It had been set to go into effect Feb. 19, prior to the injunctions, which apply nationwide.
Hilgers said Nebraska stands with Iowa and our sister states in “defending the executive order, and have urged the court to adhere to the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
Nebraska AG joins 17 other states in lawsuit supporting Trump's end to birthright citizenship
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers this week joined 17 other states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief supporting President Donald Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
