Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker denounced President Trump's executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.
“This is unconstitutional. We will not comply with unconstitutional orders,” Pritzker told reporters at an unrelated event Monday. Politico reported.
President Trump's order, Protecting the Meaning and Values of American Citizenship, asserts that the Fourteenth Amendment does not automatically confer American citizenship to individuals born in the United States.
The amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction of the United States are nationals of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”
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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker speaks at a transgender support rally at Federal Building Plaza on April 27, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Some legal experts argue that such a measure is a constitutional amendment and cannot be done by executive order. The move will almost certainly face challenges from civil rights groups and immigration activists in court.
President Trump's advisers and some conservative legal scholars have long argued that the idea of granting birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants is based on a misreading of the amendment.
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President Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it during an indoor inaugural parade event in Washington, Monday, January 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic governors also took several shots at Trump as the 47th president unleashes a series of executive actions aimed at fulfilling campaign promises such as cracking down on illegal immigration and eliminating federal DEI programs. . Pritzker, who is known for his presidential ambitions, said Trump's rapid-fire executive actions were not communicated to state governors in advance.
“They are not communicating with us. I read the same thing as you,” he said. “This is indicative of what the next four years of the Trump administration will be like. Chaos.”
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President Donald Trump sings his second executive order during the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on January 20, 2025, on the day of his second presidential inauguration in Washington, United States. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)
He also echoed former President Biden's concerns about the oligarchy of ultra-wealthy entrepreneurs aligned with President Trump in his farewell address. Silicon Valley titans Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were among the high-profile attendees at President Trump's inauguration.
“The president has oligarchs sitting in the front row at his inauguration. It shows who he cares about. It's the richest people in America who are bulldozing him. Not ordinary Americans. He doesn't care about ordinary Americans,” Pritzker said. , himself a billionaire member of the wealthy Pritzker family, which owns the Hyatt hotel chain.
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Pritzker argued that the new administration's biggest problem is “its intent to attack people's rights. That's something we have to live with or deal with every day of this administration.”
