California
California civil rights group joins fight against Trump’s birthright citizenship changes
Legal advocates in California are behind the fight to stop President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship through a class action suit filed on behalf of the babies of noncitizens.
The Asian Law Caucus is part of a coalition of civil rights groups — and the only one based in California — representing those who would be denied citizenship under the order, be they the children of undocumented immigrants or temporary residents, such as foreign students on visas.
“We’re asking the court to protect the constitutional rights of our specific class members who happen to be babies located all over the country,” said Aarti Kohli, executive director of the Asian Law Caucus.
California civil rights group joins fight against Trump’s birthright citizenship changes
A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday stopped the Trump order from taking effect. The Asian Law Caucus and other groups such as the ACLU and Democracy Defenders Fund brought the challenge last month as a way to block the order.
An alternative method was needed after the Supreme Court last month limited the ability of judges to issue nationwide injunctions against executive orders, including the birthright citizenship one issued in January. Kohli says class actions are procedurally more complex.
“With a simple nationwide injunction, you just ask the court to block the policy, but with a class certification, you have to prove that there’s so many affected people that you can’t sue individually,” Kohli said. “We have to show that everyone faces the same legal issues.”
While the legal path is different, the desired outcome is the same: stopping Trump from subverting what has been the law of the land for more than a century.
Birthright citizenship
The 14th Amendment adopted in 1868 stated that all people born on U.S. soil were citizens. Birthright citizenship was reaffirmed 20 years later in a landmark case brought by a Chinese American Californian named Wong Kim Ark, who had been denied re-entry into the U.S. on the grounds that, while he had been born in the U.S., his parents were not citizens.
Kohli said all these years later, the consequences would be dire if the Trump order took effect. A tier of stateless children could be denied Social Security numbers and passports and basic rights like healthcare and nutrition assistance, she said.
“You’d be creating a multi-generational underclass of people born here but with no legal status, no path to citizenship, no ability to work legally,” Kohli said. “These kids grow up American in every way, except on paper, but they’re permanently excluded from participating fully in society or the economy.”
Kohli says Trump’s order would hit California — and Asian communities — especially hard.
“As the fastest growing racial minority in the country, and a community that has the largest number of immigrants, this order would disproportionately impact our communities,” Kohli said.
Kohli and other legal advocates are gearing up for a tough legal battle.
The Trump administration is expected to appeal this week’s ruling.
The deadline to appeal is Thursday.
Kohli expects that one way or another, the case will end up before the Supreme Court. When that will be is unknown, throwing families who’d be affected by the order into a state of uncertainty.
Item 1 of 2 The podium for the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is seen at FBI headquarters in Washington, U.S. June 14, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/File Photo
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On September 11, FBI agents searched Continuum’s Newport Beach, California, offices, law firm Paul Hastings wrote in a September 12 letter seen by Reuters.
Representatives for Continuum did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment. The FBI is an enforcement arm of the Justice Department. Spokespeople for the agencies did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Cantor Group said the firm upheld the terms of the Zions and Western Alliance loans and did not provide comment on the government scrutiny.
Allen Matkins, a law firm that represents other entities linked to Continuum, wrote in an October 2 letter that it learned on September 11 that certain of its clients were the subject of search warrants “in connection with a pending criminal investigation,” and that a grand jury had been convened in the case.
Prosecutors typically convene a grand jury when they intend to gather more evidence. The letters did not say which specific criminal authority was leading the case or what potential misconduct or individuals it was focused on.
Criminal investigations do not necessarily mean any wrongdoing has occurred and many do not result in charges.
Reuters is reporting the FBI search and probe for the first time. The government scrutiny could have ripple effects for what legal filings and public records show is a complex web of investors and lenders tied to Continuum’s real estate dealings, some of which are entangled in civil litigation.
Paul Hastings and Allen Matkins are representing parties embroiled in a complex real estate dispute. The letters relate to those proceedings. The Allen Matkins letter was disclosed in a California court.
When asked about the letter by Reuters, a lawyer for Paul Hastings said the firm was “working to unravel multiple levels of alleged fraud,” but did not provide more details.
Allen Matkins did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
PASSIVE INVESTORS
Zions on October 15 sued Cantor Group fund guarantors Andrew Stupin and Gerald Marcil, among others, to recover more than $60 million in soured commercial and industrial loans. The next day, Western Alliance flagged that it had sued the pair and a different Cantor fund in August to recover nearly $100 million.
Both suits allege key information was misrepresented or not disclosed, breaching the loan terms. Western Alliance also alleges fraud on the part of the Cantor fund.
Continuum acquires and manages distressed real estate assets for groups of investors, and its largest investors include Stupin and Marcil, according to a February arbitration ruling related to the real estate dispute. That ruling found Cantor “consists solely” of Continuum’s legal owner, Deba Shyam, and shares the Continuum offices. Shyam did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Cantor upheld its contractual obligations and was transparent with its lenders, while the loans were audited and independently reviewed multiple times over the years, said the Cantor attorney Brandon Tran, who also represents Stupin and Marcil.
The pair are passive investors in Cantor and held no operational roles, he added. Cantor in legal filings has disputed that the Western Alliance loan is in default.
In a statement, Marcil said he had invested in several of Continuum’s properties. He denied wrongdoing and said that he was a victim.
Spokespeople for Zions and Western Alliance did not respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Douglas Gillison and Chris Prentice; Editing by Michelle Price
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
California air quality officials have sued four truck manufacturers for breaching a voluntary agreement to follow the state’s nation-leading emissions rules, the state announced Tuesday.
What happened: Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office filed a complaint Monday in Alameda County Superior Court, arguing that the country’s four largest truck-makers — Daimler Truck North America, International Motors, Paccar and Volvo North America — violated an enforceable contract that they signed with the California Air Resources Board in 2023.
The lawsuit comes two months after the manufacturers filed their own complaint in federal court, arguing the agreement — known as the Clean Truck Partnership — is no longer valid after Republicans overturned California’s Advanced Clean Truck rule in June through the Congressional Review Act.
Why it matters: The move sets up a fight to determine whether the federal system or state courts — where CARB would have a higher likelihood of prevailing — will review the case.
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