The Trump administration's challenge to birthright citizenship has become a personal battle for Nery Martinez, a Las Vegas resident who arrived in the United States nearly 30 years ago as an undocumented immigrant fleeing civil war in El Salvador.
Martinez and his wife, Rosa, have two children, 22-year-old Katie and 19-year-old Eric, who were born in the U.S. and are American citizens.
"That's the law. The Constitution. They were born here. They have citizenship," Martinez said.
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However, Ted Pappageorge, head of the Culinary Union, emphasized that the 14th Amendment has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court multiple times over the past 127 years. "I love folks that have the Constitution on one hand, unless it's not convenient for them. I don't believe in attacking the Constitution of the United States of America," Pappageorge said.