Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall is backing President Donald Trump's move to ban birthright citizenship for those born in the United States to illegal immigrants or temporary visitors.
On Monday, Marshall announced Alabama has teamed up with two dozen other states in filing a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, supporting the President's executive order addressing the issue.
Following litigation from lower courts, the state attorneys general requested America's preeminent bench take up the case.
"The Constitution is not a loophole for illegal immigration," Marshall argued. "The framers of the Fourteenth Amendment did not mean for citizenship to be granted by mere accident of birth. Citizenship belongs to those who share allegiance to our nation, reserved for the children of American citizens and lawful permanent residents, not those present unlawfully or temporarily."
"President Trump's order rightly restores the true intent of the Citizenship Clause, and we urge the Supreme Court to affirm that principle," he added.
According to the brief signed onto by Marshall, the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause was originally intended to grant citizenship to freed slaves and their children, not children of illegal aliens or temporary visitors. The memorandum also emphasized the cost of illegal immigration for states, including economic fallout and public safety concerns.
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