Oregon on Tuesday joined a growing list of Democratic-led states suing the Trump administration over its efforts to roll back birthright citizenship in the country.

Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he and attorneys general from Washington, Arizona and Illinois filed a lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship, which Rayfield said violates the constitutional rights all children born in the U.S. are entitled to. Separately, a coalition of 18 Democratic-led states, the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco also filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston on Tuesday, where officials argue the Trump’s administration effort to end birthright citizenship “is a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.”

“The administration’s attempt to sidestep the Fourteenth Amendment is a clear violation of the United States Constitution. If allowed to stand, this order would break decades of established law that has helped keep kids healthy and safe,” Rayfield said in a statement. “While the President has every right to issue executive orders during his time in office, that power does not extend to instituting policies that infringe on our constitutional rights.”

Trump issued a series of executive orders hours after his inauguration Monday, including the one that would end birthright citizenship. Several are part of his promise to carry out a massive immigration crackdown.

Birthright citizenship is automatically granted to individuals born in the U.S. under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Birthright citizenship dates to 1898 when the Supreme Court confirmed the principle in a case that clarified children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, according to the American Immigration Council.

In Oregon, an estimated 2,500 U.S. citizen children were born to mothers who lacked legal status, and another estimated 1,500 children were born to two undocumented parents in 2022, alone, according to the lawsuit. The estimates in the other plaintiff states – Washington, Arizona and Illinois – are higher.

Nationally, the suit says, some 255,000 children were born to undocumented mothers, and about 153,000 children were born to two undocumented parents in 2022.

“Using these numbers, likely more than 12,000 babies born in the United States each month who are entitled to citizenship – including more than 1,100 babies born each month in the Plaintiff states – will no longer be considered United States citizens under the Citizenship Stripping Order and will be left with no immigration status,” the lawsuit reads.

These are conservative estimates, and the actual number of those impacted is likely higher, according to the lawsuit.

Babies born in the country and stripped of their citizenship would essentially be “citizens of no country at all,” according to the lawsuit, and would be subject to detention or deportation.

Elizabeth Wydra, president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, during a recent call with reporters said one of the reasons why birthright citizenship exists in the U.S. Constitution “is so it isn’t subject to the whims and winds of political favor as they change.”

“An executive order that purports to change the meaning of the Constitution is obviously not constitutional, you need a constitutional amendment to do that,” she said.

The lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and seeks to invalidate the Trump’s administration executive order. The plaintiff states have requested immediate injunctive relief to prevent the executive order from taking effect through a temporary restraining order.

Washington is leading the effort.

The effects of a citizenship stripping effort would be felt beyond those directly impacted and would lead to financial losses to states where the impacted individuals live, the lawsuit contends.

More states and immigration advocacy organizations are also expected to sue the Trump administration over birthright citizenship. Legal fights on that issue and other Trump priorities ultimately may end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.