Constitutional Accountability Center Constitutional Accountability Center

Immigration and Citizenship

Using the Constitution’s text and history to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens and immigrants
i
Eastern European Jewish war orphans arrive in the United States | American Jewish Joint Distribution Center

Summary

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause is one of the most important provisions of the Constitution, guaranteeing birthright citizenship. CAC uses this and other constitutional provisions, along with federal statutes, to ensure that the rights of all Americans and immigrants are secured.

Immigration and Citizenship in Brief

Naturalization ceremony in Atlanta, GA | David Lienemann, White House Archives

The Trump administration, through its Muslim travel ban, has shown a disregard for the Constitution and a willingness to write discrimination into our laws. CAC, in these cases and elsewhere, fights to ensure that such attacks do not succeed.

Featured Case

Voting Rights and Democracy April 23, 2019

New York, et al. vs. U.S. Department of Commerce, et al.

On March 26, 2018—many years into preparation and testing for the 2020 Census—the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce ordered the Census Bureau to add a citizenship question to the Census, turning a blind eye to the overwhelming evidence that this question will deter participation by immigrants across the country, who do not want an official record of their immigration status and fear that their responses will be used by the government to harm them and their families. The Secretary also announced that the government would use administrative records to double-check the accuracy of responses to the citizenship question....

Case Timeline

Current
  • The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments
  • The Supreme Court agrees to hear the case
  • The government asks the Supreme Court to hear the case without an appeal to the Second Circuit

Related Issue Areas

Civil and Human Rights See More
Criminal Justice See More