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
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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 are secured.

Immigration and Citizenship in Brief

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

CAC fights in the courts and in the public square against continuing attacks on immigrants and their rights, the power of the federal government to regulate immigration, and the Constitution’s protection of birthright citizenship.

Featured Case

Immigration and Citizenship June 6, 2025

CASA v. Trump

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order purporting to limit birthright citizenship to children who have at least one parent who is a citizen or is lawfully admitted for permanent residence. Immigrant rights nonprofits and individual immigrants challenged the order as a blatant violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that “[a]ll 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.” According to the Trump Administration, the children of noncitizen parents without lawful status, as well as the...

Case Timeline

Current
  • CAC files amicus brief on behalf of scholars of Constitutional Law and Immigration

Related Issue Areas

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