A document obtained by the Heritage Foundation outlines a plan to challenge the Trump administration’s extensive reforms to illegal immigration, particularly the move to end birthright citizenship as a constitutional guarantee.
The conservative think tank revealed that 23 attorneys general from 22 states and the District of Columbia have formed a “secret pact” to launch a full-scale effort to prevent the termination of birthright citizenship following President Donald Trump’s signing of a related executive order.
The group’s Oversight project noted on X that the plan has been in place and was “signed beginning on November 8, 2024.”
“This agreement, just 3 days after President Trump’s landslide election win, shows that these resistance actors began, as a matter of absolute urgent top priority, plotting their resistance to President Trump’s anticipated actions to end birthright citizenship,” the post read. “Their top priority was not gas, groceries, public safety, or any other matter of concerns of their citizen constituents, but instead a raw political calculus to ensure that the future children of the illegal aliens that entered during the Biden Border Crisis could turn into voters.”
Written as a legal “common interest agreement,” all parties agree to help propagate “potential litigation to challenge executive action related to ending or curtailing birthright citizenship,” according to the Western Journal.
The agreement “sets forth the agreement under which each Party and their respective staff, management, consultants, experts, counsel, and agents will manage and protect confidential and/or privileged information shared and exchanged regarding” challenges to Trump’s birthright citizenship order.
🚨SECRET BLUE STATE RESISTANCE AGREEMENT OBTAINED – BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP🚨
We have obtained a secret agreement between 22 blue states, DC, and San Francisco, signed beginning on November 8, 2024. This agreement, just 3 days after President Trump’s landslide election win,… pic.twitter.com/7AsqgCjlcX
— Oversight Project (@OversightPR) February 11, 2025
President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have criticized the power of district courts to hinder their efforts on birthright citizenship. On Tuesday, a New Hampshire judge became the third to block the enforcement of the president’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants or those legally in the U.S. on a temporary basis.
The day before the ruling, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed “activist judges” for obstructing executive authority, arguing that their decisions, not Trump’s executive orders, represent the real “constitutional crisis.”
“We believe these judges are acting as judicial activists rather than honest arbiters of the law,” Leavitt told reporters, according to the AP. She insisted that “the real constitutional crisis is taking place within our judicial branch.”
The Trump administration, however, is also making legal moves regarding those in the country illegally.
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on Wednesday that the administration has filed a lawsuit against New York state, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Attorney General Letitia James, accusing them of violating federal law by shielding illegal immigrants.
“This is a new DOJ,” Bondi announced at a news conference. “New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens. It stops. It stops today.”
Mark Schroeder, the New York Department of Motor Vehicles commissioner, has also been charged. Bondi referenced New York’s Green Light laws, known as the Driver’s License Act, which permits illegal immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.
The law prohibits certain federal agencies from accessing driver’s license information in New York State.
“They have green light laws, meaning they’re giving a green light to any illegal alien in New York, where law enforcement officers cannot check their identity if they pull them over,” Bondi said. “And law enforcement officers do not have access to their background. And if these great men and women pull over someone and don’t have access to their background, they have no idea who they’re dealing with, and it puts their lives on the line every single day.
“If you don’t comply with federal law, we will hold you accountable,” Bondi said. “We did it to Illinois, strike one. Strike two is New York. And if you are a state not complying with federal law, you’re next. Get ready.”