Twenty-two states in the United States on Tuesday filed a lawsuit to block President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship in the country, the AP reported.

On Monday, shortly after being sworn in as the US president, Trump signed a series of executive orders including one to stop automatically granting citizenship to those born in the US in specific scenarios.

Legal consensus, however, broadly holds that the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees birthright citizenship.

The president on Monday directed federal agencies to refuse to recognise citizenship for children who were born in the country to mothers who are in the country illegally or are there legally on temporary visas, if the father is not a United States citizen or a green card holder.

A green card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, allows an individual to stay and work permanently in the United States.

The executive order would deny citizenship to children who are born on United States soil starting 30 days from the order, if at least one parent is not a United States citizen or a lawful permanent resident. This is unless a court stays the order.

The action was Trump’s election campaign promise.

Attorney generals of Democratic Party-ruled states and immigrant rights advocates assert that birthright citizenship is settled law and that the president is not above the Constitution.

“The president cannot, with a stroke of a pen, write the 14th Amendment out of existence, period,” AP quoted New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin as saying.

The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution says that all persons “born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside”.

The White House dismissed the lawsuits as “just another extension of the Left’s resistance” said that it was prepared to defend Trump’s order in court.

“Radical Leftists can either choose to swim against the tide and reject the overwhelming will of the people, or they can get on board and work with President Trump,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields was quoted as saying.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong described the lawsuit as a personal matter for him. Tong is a US citizen by birth and the first Chinese American elected to the office.

“The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says – if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop,” Voice of America quoted him as saying.

Tong added: “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump is dead wrong will not prevent him from inflicting serious harm right now on American families like my own.”

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