Washington Attorney General Nick Brown last month vowed to take on the incoming administration of President Donald Trump when necessary. Hours into Trump’s second term, the state’s top lawyer has followed through and filed suit.
Brown on Tuesday announced a lawsuit targeting Trump’s executive order that aims to end birthright citizenship. Washington’s new attorney general, who was sworn in last week, decried the directive as “unconstitutional,” “cruel” and “simply un-American.”
Washington is leading the multistate federal suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Oregon, Illinois and Arizona also joined the complaint.
“The president’s executive order claiming to end birthright citizenship in the United States is plainly and obviously illegal,” Brown said at a Jan. 21 news conference. “Washington state will not abide by such harmful and unjust action.”
Trump’s office did not immediately return McClatchy’s request for comment.
Another lawsuit challenging Trump’s anti-birthright-citizenship order has reportedly been filed by 18 states, the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco.
Trump signed a flurry of executive orders Monday shortly after being sworn in as the 47th president. Soon after, Brown issued a statement about the “host of gravely concerning executive orders that pose significant harm to thousands of Washingtonians.” He added that his office would be analyzing them on their merits.
For the past year, the Attorney General’s Office has readied itself for this moment, Brown noted in a Monday news release. He said his team has studied Project 2025, the sweeping federal policy agenda for the next Republican president. (Trump has said he has “nothing to do” with the controversial blueprint, although many people who served in his first and current administrations have ties to it.)
Brown said in the news release that in the coming days his team would have more to reveal about Trump’s directives and the “potential for litigation.”
“For now, I want Washingtonians to know we will do everything in our power to defend them and our state’s shared values against illegal acts by the Trump Administration,” he continued.
The state’s Republican leadership was asked about the new lawsuit during a Tuesday morning media advisory. House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary of Auburn said he hasn’t seen Trump’s executive order or the legal challenge.
“We got elected to solve state issues, not federal issues,” Stokesbary said. “I really like Nick Brown, but I would caution him the same way. He was elected to represent Washington and protect Washington state interests.”
Brown sees it differently.
“This is harming Washingtonians,” he said Tuesday. “This will harm Washingtonians by denying them the rights of Americans that they are entitled to as a matter of law.”
For more than 150 years, birthright citizenship has been the law of the land, Brown said, granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States, whether their parents are citizens or not. If Trump’s order stands, some 250,000 newborns each year would be denied citizenship, including thousands in Washington.
Washington’s complaint claims that Trump’s order violates the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to those born or naturalized in the U.S., Brown said. It also states that the order flouts a provision of federal immigration law.
In addition, he said, the AG’s Office will file an emergency motion in the next day that seeks to prevent federal agencies from using the order to refuse citizenship to new babies in Washington.
The League of United Latin American Citizens also blasted Trump’s order in a Tuesday news release. CEO Juan Proaño said the president’s directive attempts to infringe on citizens’ civil rights and that of their immigrant family members.
“This effort to demonize Brown and Black immigrants targets all immigrants in this country, regardless of their background,” Proaño said. “If not stopped, it will undermine the very essence of what it means to be an American and will tear families apart.”
Brown said Tuesday that Trump has long incited hatred against and fear of immigrants. Trump might want to redraw the contours of U.S. citizenship, but he won’t be able to, he added.
“One man cannot simply erase what the meaning of the Constitution is,” Brown said. “Not even the president.”