(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump starts to defend his executive order ending birthright citizenship in court, parents are beginning to grapple with the uncertainty stemming from his unprecedented executive order and the possibility that their future children could become “stateless.”
Five pregnant undocumented women and two nonprofits on Tuesday filed a lawsuit in Maryland District Court challenging the order, which seeks to interpret the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship as not applying to the children of undocumented parents. Joining the lawsuit under pseudonyms, the women argued that Trump’s order deprives their future children of their constitutional rights.
“The principle of birthright citizenship is a foundation of our national democracy, is woven throughout the laws of our nation, and has shaped a shared sense of national belonging for generation after generation of citizens,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint makes a similar claim as the four other federal lawsuits signed on by a combined 22 states and two cities; however, this lawsuit differs by having multiple plaintiffs who would be directly impacted by the executive order. The 38-page filing provides personal details of how the lives of each woman and their future children would be changed under Trump’s plan.
Monica – a medical doctor from Venezuela with temporary protected status who joined the lawsuit under the pseudonym– said she joined the lawsuit because she fears her future child will become stateless, as her home country facing an ongoing humanitarian, political and economic crisis.
“I’m 12 weeks pregnant. I should be worried about the health of my child. I should be thinking about that primarily and instead my husband and I are stressed, we’re anxious and we’re depressed about the reality that my child may not be able to become a US citizen,” she said.
Maribel – who joined the lawsuit under a pseudonym along with four other women – has lived in the United States for more than half her life after emigrating from El Salvador and Guatemala. She is due to have her third child in July but worries Trump’s executive order will split her young family, the lawsuit said.
“She fears her unborn child will not have the same rights to citizenship as the future child’s older sisters, and could even be subject to deportation, separating the family,” the lawsuit read.
“Every day, babies are being born in the United States whose constitutionally guaranteed citizenship will be called into doubt under the Executive Order,” the lawsuit argued.
Liza and her husband Igor fled Russia to the United States for asylum, and they are expecting a child in May. They can’t imagine being forced to bring their newborn back to a country that will likely prosecute them, the lawsuit said.
“Neither Liza nor Igor feel they can return to Russia without being persecuted, and they therefore do not feel they can apply for Russian citizenship for their child. Because of that, Liza and Igor are worried their child will be stateless,” the lawsuit said.
Juana – who is two months pregnant – fears what the future might hold for her and her future child if they are sent back to Colombia if her asylum claim falls through, according to the lawsuit.
“She wants her unborn child to be able to grow up without fear and with a sense of belonging in the United States. The thought that her unborn child could be denied U.S. citizenship and deported to Colombia without her is terrifying,” the lawsuit said.
Trinidad is a Venezuelan immigrant who is due in August, but she fears that her child will be stateless under Trump’s executive order, caught between Venezuela’s democratic crisis and the legal tumult of the United States immigration system, the lawsuit said.
Monica and her partner both have Temporary Protected Status after seeking asylum from Venezuela in the United States, but they are worried their child may be ineligible for both the United States and Venezuelan citizenship. Monica said she came to the United States in 2019 with her husband and thought they were doing “everything the right way” by paying taxes, working and buying their own home, she said.
“We had reached a point of stability in this country and wanted to have a child,” Monica said.
A happy change in their lives quickly devolved into fear, she said, when they saw Trump act on his promise to end the United States’ promise of birthright citizenship with the swipe of a sharpie.
“This is a really difficult situation where I truly do not see a way out for my child, a way forward for my child to be able to get through this,” she said.
Because Venezuela no longer offers consular services in the United States, Monica said she is unable to explore the possibility of getting her child citizenship there. Her lawyers do not know if Trump’s executive order would apply to people with temporary protected status, so determining if her child will be an American citizen meant filing a lawsuit against the president, she said.
“This executive order has just left us with more uncertainty than even before. Will my child be a US citizen? Will he be nothing? We just do not know what to do,” she said.
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