April 18, 2025
Pacifica Represents WA Healthcare Orgs in Opposing President’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order
Pacifica represented Washington State hospitals and healthcare professionals in filing an amicus brief on April 11 opposing President Trump’s Executive Order targeting birthright citizenship (the Order). Filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the brief supports the State of Washington’s lawsuit challenging the Order by highlighting the severe negative impacts it would have on Washington’s healthcare system and the national healthcare system as a whole.
Pacifica submitted the brief on behalf of the Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) and the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA), organizations that collectively represent 114 hospitals, and 13,000 physicians, surgeons, and physician assistants in the state. A Pacifica litigation team of Paul Lawrence, Sarah Mack, Meha Goyal, and Clare Riva represented the WSHA and WSMA in filing the brief, which urges the Court to uphold a U.S. District Court’s earlier injunction preventing President Trump’s Order from taking effect.
If Trump’s Order is allowed to go into effect, the brief notes, it would reduce funding and increase costs for the State and for healthcare providers, while also burdening hospitals and healthcare providers by asking them to care for greater numbers of severely ill patients. Removing birthright citizenship would create “a class of [noncitizen] children no longer eligible” for federally subsidized healthcare coverage, which would shift the entire financial burden to the State and threaten the health of the State’s communities. The Order would also “simultaneously force [healthcare] providers to incur increased administrative costs while losing critical federal funding.”
In addition, the Order would create more barriers to accessing preventative and timely healthcare for noncitizen immigrants, leading to poor healthcare outcomes—particularly for babies and pregnant women—that further burden hospitals and healthcare professionals, and increase costs for hospitals and medical facilities.
“By undermining the essential work of doctors, medical providers, and hospitals, [the Order] jeopardizes the well-being of patients and the ability of healthcare professionals to carry out their duties in accordance with established standards of care,” the brief argues. “The harm to public health and the erosion of the foundational principles of medical practice are both profound and irreparable.”
