Connecticut Attorney General William Tong threatened to file a lawsuit against President-elect Trump if he moves to remove birthright citizenship from the Constitution under mounting deportation efforts.
“I would be the first to sue,” Tong, a Democrat, told MSNBC in an article published Sunday.
Trump has promised to conduct the largest deportation in the country’s history during his second term in office with the help of Tom Homan as “border czar” and Kristi Noem, who was nominated to serve as secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.
Tong, 51, is the child of two immigrants from Taiwan and China, which in part fueled his political ambition.
“I grew up working side-by-side with my parents in our family’s Chinese restaurant, and in one generation I’ve gone from that Chinese restaurant kitchen to be the attorney general of the state of Connecticut,” he said earlier in the interview.
“That only happens one place in this world, and that’s in America.”
Tong is determined to maintain the pathway to citizenship for children born to immigrants in the country illegally despite Republicans' dedication to harsher border security laws and punishments.
Some have debated that Trump’s vow to end birthright citizenship couldn’t materialize through only an executive order but would require an amendment to the Constitution.
Others have claimed the document doesn’t apply to immigrants in the country illegally. The former president is poised to take on the issue as one of his first decrees while in office.
