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

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 October 27, 2020

Velasco Lopez v. Decker

Carlos Velasco Lopez is a citizen of Mexico who was brought to the United States as a small child in 1995. After his temporary legal status lapsed, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed him in deportation proceedings, and it detained him pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1226(a) while those proceedings continued. Although this statute permits the release of detainees on bond or parole, an immigration judge denied release based on the standard that the executive branch requires immigration judges to apply. Under this standard, the government does not need to justify its detention of a person in deportation proceedings by...

Case Timeline

Current
  • The Second Circuit issues its decision
  • The Second Circuit hears oral argument
  • CAC files an amicus curiae brief

Related Issue Areas

Civil and Human Rights See More
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