League slams ‘perversion of civil rights laws.’
By P.C. Staff
The Japanese American Citizens League issued a strongly worded statement late Wednesday night expressing its alarm and concern over some of the many executive orders signed by President Trump since he was inaugurated Monday.
In its statement, JACL said it was “especially concerned with Executive Orders calling for the end of birthright citizenship, an escalation of the border crisis including the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, the overt discrimination towards LGBTQIA+ individuals, and the rollback of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility initiatives.”
The organization also slammed what it described as “the perversion of Civil Rights laws to advance a white supremacist agenda.”
On Monday alone, Trump signed 26 executive orders. The executive order titled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship” seeks to reinterpret the accepted meaning of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and end automatic conferral of U.S. citizenship to anyone born in the United States or where a newborn is subject to U.S. jurisdiction, a legal concept known as jus soli.
The 14th Amendment, which contains 80 words, reads:
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.
On Thursday, Seattle-based U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who was nominated by President Reagan in 1981, signed a temporary restraining order blocking that executive order. On Tuesday, 18 state attorneys general joined a legal challenge to the executive order. In California, Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit “challenging the Trump Administration’s unconstitutional executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.”
In its statement, JACL said it “opposes these executive orders and the attempts to dismantle generations of civil rights law” and added: “We especially recognize the ugly hatred directed at the transgender community. Revoking the recognition of transgender people on their federally issued documents will not erase them and pitting transgender people against women and false fears for our children will not be a winning strategy.”
To read JACL’s the statement in its entirety, click here.
To join JACL, click here.
