Immigration and Citizenship

Using the Constitution’s text and history to protect the constitutional rights of American citizens and immigrants

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

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

Immigration and Citizenship November 12, 2019

Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California; Trump v. NAACP; and McAleenan v. Vidal

In June 2012, the Department of Homeland Security established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which authorizes the temporary deferred removal of “certain young people who were brought to this country as children.” Over the past seven years, almost 800,000 people have obtained protections under DACA, which also allows qualified recipients to apply for work permits. In September 2017, however, the Trump Administration announced that it was ending DACA, citing the policy’s supposed “legal and constitutional defects.” Soon after, Respondents in these cases filed three separate federal lawsuits in California, Washington, D.C., and New York, arguing that the...

Case Timeline

Current

The Supreme Court hears oral arguments
CAC files an amicus brief

Immigration and Citizenship

Summary