Washington’s attorney general, along with three other states, sued the Trump administration Tuesday over the president’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship. 

Attorney General Nick Brown’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Seattle comes just 24 hours after President Donald Trump took office for a second time Monday. 

The Democratic attorney general, who took office last week, announced the litigation Tuesday in a press conference in Seattle. Oregon, Arizona and Illinois joined the lawsuit. 

Brown said he would be filing an emergency motion to block federal agencies “relying on the order to deny citizenship to babies born in our state.” An attorney general’s office spokesperson added the order will seek to stop enforcement of the order “in its entirety.”

“On Monday, one man, the president, said that the citizenship of millions of Americans born to immigrants in this country means less,” Brown said, “that the children of immigrants born into citizenship don’t have as much value in this country as others. He is wrong.”

Attorneys general from 18 other states also sued over the order in federal court in Massachusetts. 

Brown noted his lawsuit is similar, but said he felt Washington should lead a separate case because of “specific and unique harms that are brought here.” He also said “we have a very good set of judges in our bench here in Washington, so I feel like this is the right place.”

A group of advocacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, has filed a legal challenge on the birthright citizenship order, as well.

Trump’s executive order signed in the opening hours of his presidency, would block citizenship for children born to mothers who are in the United States illegally and whose fathers are not lawful permanent residents. It would also affect children born to mothers in the country temporarily, such as on student, work or tourist visas.

State House Republican Leader Drew Stokesbary, of Auburn, told reporters Tuesday morning he hadn’t seen the executive order or lawsuit. 

“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 responded by saying he took an oath last week to defend the state and U.S. constitutions.

“I would think that everyone in the Legislature, regardless of party, would want me to uphold my obligation, and it is in my judgment and the judgment of this team that the president’s order violates the law,” he responded. “So I do not think that my friends in the Legislature of any party would want me to simply ignore that.”

Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, said in a statement the attorney general’s office will “have the full support of my administration.”

Precedent

The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution codified birthright citizenship in 1868. It begins: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

The executive order, set to go into effect in 30 days, focuses on the “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” phrase.

“The Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States,” Trump’s order reads. “The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

The lawsuit states, in 2022, about 255,000 children were born to undocumented mothers, including 7,000 in Washington state. About 4,000 were born to two parents without legal status.