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Trump’s executive orders on immigration expected to have impacts in Missouri

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Recent executive actions by President Donald Trump to limit immigration from refugees and birthright citizenship could have significant ripple effects in Missouri.

Tuesday, the controversial executive order reinterpreting the 14th Amendment led to lawsuits being filed by a dozen states and the ACLU.

"President Trump's executive order is an illegal attempt to override the Constitution, Supreme Court precedent, and Congress," Executive Director of the Asian Law Caucus Aarti Kohli said in an ACLU Press conference covering the lawsuit. "It's an egregious attempt to disenfranchise Americans of color and would deny constitutional rights to tens of thousands of families each year.

The order aims to challenge the amendment and exclude children born on U.S. soil if their parents are illegally in the country or on temporary visas at the time of birth. If not blocked by the courts, the order will go into effect on Feb. 19.

The ACLU also argues that if passed by the courts, the ruling could set a dangerous precedent for future rulings.

"It's not just about immigration, it's about whether we will allow one person to override constitutional guarantees that have protected Americans for generations," Co-Legal Director of Make the Road New York Harold Solis said during an ACLU press conference.

Director of Litigation and Co-Founder of the Freedom Center of Missouri Dave Roland confidently said that across the political spectrum, Trump's stance against birthright citizenship is a fringe perspective. Roland believes the case is clear-cut and expects that lawsuit will quickly move up the courts where the Supreme Court would most likely rule against it.

"I'm not aware of very many reputable constitutional attorneys at all who think that there is a likelihood of this point of view prevailing in the courts," Roland said.

Roland adds that Trump's take on the amendment may make the court's ruling against the change easier. Roland also expects that the court's decision will be unanimous.

"You might have one, maybe two of the more stereotypically conservative justices voting to uphold President Trump's order, but I don't think that's even likely," Roland said. "This is an issue where I believe that the text in the history of the Constitution is so abundantly clear that I'm not sure how any of the right-leaning justices in good faith could say, 'Oh, yeah, you know what? We've misinterpreted this constitutional provision for more than 100 years.'"

According to the American Immigration Council, in 2022, there were 12,500 U.S. citizen children living with at least one undocumented parent in Missouri.

Trump's executive order that suspends refugee admissions programs starting on Jan. 27 may affect Missouri businesses.

According to the American Immigration Council in 2022, Missouri had an estimated 21,900 refugees with an employment rate of 100%.

Missouri Office of Refugee Administration Refugee Coordinator Paul Costigan expects the executive orders to mainly impact the number of people they serve.

Before the order, the center was expecting more than 4,000 refugees in the state for the 2025 fiscal year between Oct. 1 2024-Sept. 30, 2025. MO-ORA was able to accept around 1,000 people before the order was signed.

Constigan added refugees who have entered humanitarian parole, like those fleeing Afghanistan or Ukraine, are not considered permanent residents who would be affected by a change in birthright citizenship.

One executive order ended humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. According to the MO-ORA Venezuela is the only terminated humanitarian parole country that ranks in the top 10 nationalities of refugee arrivals.

Costigan -- who has been with the center for around 25 years -- said that shifts in refugee policies between presidential administrations are common and the office doesn't expect the order to affect the group's ability to provide language and employment training for current refugees.

"We're familiar with what the executive orders that have come before during the first Trump administration, so it wasn't really anything that was very surprising," Costigan said.

According to the order, the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program may open back upon within 90 days of Monday if the Secretary of Homeland Security presents a report of a new program plan Trump considers in the interest of the U.S.

Conistogan hopes the program will open back up soon as many businesses in the state, like manufacturing and hospitality, lean on refugee employment.

"Many of the businesses around the state, they are really hurting for employees and so they're really looking for new refugees to come in to take some of the openings that they have," Conistogan said. "Refugees really do not compete with native-born as far as employment is concerned, so seems to be that there's lots of jobs available for anybody at one time."

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Marie Moyer

Marie Moyer joined ABC 17 News in June 2024 as a multimedia journalist.

She graduated from Pennsylvania State University in May 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in sociology.

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