Three days after President Donald Trump was sworn into office, Kimberley Gilbert, an English immigrant who lives in Weymouth, began sending her eight-year-old daughter to school with her birth certificate.
“I want to make sure we are prepared,” Gilbert said. “If there is a big sweep through, that she can then loudly say, ‘I have documentation.’”
Gilbert is among many concerned parents after President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 20 to revoke birthright citizenship, prompting lawsuits by Boston-based legal organizations and concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Citizenship may only be granted to children with one or more parents who hold U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent resident status, according to the executive order.
The order directs federal agencies to deny citizenship documentation to these individuals and applies only to births occurring 30 days after its enactment.
Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based legal group, is one of the organizations suing the Trump Administration, said Senior Attorney Victoria Miranda.
“Everybody that is born in the United States is a United States citizen and therefore should be entitled to the rights and the protections of the Constitution,” Miranda said.
Miranda said the order is structured in a way to target certain races and national origins.
“Only certain types of people are no longer allowed to get the rights afforded to them in the Constitution,” Miranda said. “It has strong, overtly racist implementations of how it would be issued.”
Lawyers for Civil Rights filed its lawsuit on behalf of a pregnant woman living in Massachusetts, who is due to deliver in March 2025. The plaintiff is lawfully in the country, but the father is not a U.S citizen or a lawful permanent resident.
“I know that a lot of pregnant women right now are terrified,” said Miranda. “Imagine the stresses of being a pregnant woman and all the health causes and concerns that come into play, but now you have to add this to the list.”
Miranda said the order would also affect babies and innocent children.
“They won’t be entitled to the rights that all citizens have and the protection that all citizens have,” Miranda said.
The order was halted Jan. 23 by a temporary restraining order issued by a federal judge. The restraining order will expire Feb. 6, at which point there will likely be a request for an extension or permanent restraining order, said Yoana Kuzmova, a clinical instructor in the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law.
“It is an attack on birthright citizenship that I think is the most significant one that we have seen in the last century,” Kuzmova said. “There is a very good chance that at least five Supreme Court justices will stand by this precedent.”
Along with his order revoking birthright citizenship of some, Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law Wednesday, mandating that all immigrants here illegally accused of violent crimes be arrested and deported even in absence of convictions.
In Boston, ICE agents have recently carried out several highly-publicized arrests of immigrants here illegally, causing worry among parents and residents.
Superintendent of Somerville Public Schools Ruben Carmona wrote in a statement to The Daily Free Press that SPS is “deeply committed to supporting” its immigrant students and families, which was also shared with SPS families.
“We will not allow ICE agents access to SPS facilities without a criminal judicial warrant,” Carmona wrote. “We do not share student records with ICE.”
Gilbert, who finally received her citizenship two years ago, is still worried about her personal safety, as the ICE raids are “just the beginning of it.”
“There are already people turning on people,” she said. “We all need to be together, not turning on each other.”
