New York State Bar Association Decries President Trump’s Executive Order Denying Citizenship to Children Born in the United States
1.24.2025
Domenick Napoletano, president of the New York State Bar Association, issued the following statement about President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration:
“The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution is unequivocal. It grants citizenship to every baby born in the United States with limited exceptions. Ignoring decades of court precedent, President Donald Trump on his first day in office issued an executive order denying citizenship to the 150,000 babies born each year to undocumented immigrants. The U.S. Constitution is a sacred document and the foundation of our system of government; it guarantees due process and establishes the rule of law. We ignore it at our peril.”
“The president’s executive order further undermines our system of government by reducing the likelihood that immigrants will have a lawyer by their sides when defending themselves against a trained government attorney. The Refugee Admissions Program, which the president also eliminated by executive order, included some access to an attorney. The New York State Bar Association’s governing body, the House of Delegates, approved a report from the association’s Committee on Immigration Representation demonstrating that immigrants without legal representation are at a severe disadvantage in any legal proceeding. It is now up to the courts to rise above politics and put a stop to this injustice.”
