Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joins a growing list of Democrat-state AGs to enjoin the lawsuits challenging President Trump’s executive order ending “Birthright Citizenship.” Under the current interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s “Equal Protection Clause,” children born in the United States to illegal immigrants are deemed American citizens, irrespective of their parents’ status.

The constitution states, “All 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. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

However, many constitutional scholars maintain that the rule was never intended to include children born to anyone “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The amendment is generally not applicable to those in the US on diplomatic visas, workers with “green cards,” and others in the country on official business. However, it has traditionally been granted to children of illegal immigrants, a practice that Trump argues is contrary to the views and wishes of most Americans, particularly those who voted for Trump.

In a press release issued on January 21, 2025, Mayes wrote, “No executive order can supersede the United States Constitution and over 150 years of settled law,” said Mayes. “While President Trump may want to take this nation back to a time before all American citizens were treated equally under the law – we will not allow him to do so.”

Mayes, joined by DAs from Washington, Illinois, and Oregon, filed her suit in the Washington Western District Court as a separate action from an earlier case brought by 18 states plus Washington, D.C., and the city and county of San Francisco (independently of the state of California). Those states include New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The DAs in all of these jurisdictions are Democrats.

According to Mayes’ lawsuit, the number of children born to illegal immigrants (also called “anchor babies”) in 2023 was approximately 255K, up from 153K in 2022. Of that 2022 number, approximately 6K were born in Arizona. The suit estimates that at least 12K are born monthly nationwide. In addition to the social and legal arguments, Mayes asserts that ending “birthright citizenship” would reduce federal funding to the state. Arizona receives nearly $1M in annual federal funding under the “Enumeration at Birth” program.