LOWELL >> The presidential transition Monday brought with it a flurry of executive orders from President Donald Trump covering a wide range of issues and political grievances, with a major focus being on immigration.

Among the dozens of orders signed by Trump Monday were multiple related to foreign immigration into the U.S.

The most notable of those orders was one intending to end birthright citizenship, a concept laid out in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution allowing for all those physically born on U.S. soil to be U.S. citizens. That order faced almost immediate legal challenges from 22 states Tuesday, including from Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

“Birthright citizenship in our country is a guarantee of equality, born out of a collective fight against oppression, slavery and its devastating harms. It is a settled right in our Constitution and recognized by the Supreme Court for more than a century,” Campbell said in a statement Tuesday announcing the legal action. “President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights, and we will fight against his effort to overturn our Constitution and punish innocent babies born in Massachusetts.”

In Campbell’s announcement, her office said the states joining the lawsuit “seek to invalidate the President’s Order and to enjoin any actions taken to implement it.”

The 14th Amendment was adopted into the Constitution in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, in response to the Dred Scott decision of 1857, a ruling that prevented descendants of Black slaves from being U.S. citizens.

“Despite the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship, under President Trump’s Order more than 150,000 children born every year in the United States will—for the first time—lose their ability to fully and fairly be a part of American society as citizens with all of citizenship’s benefits and privileges and will be forced to live under the threat of deportation,” said Campbell’s office. “They will have no ability to obtain a Social Security number and, as they age, to work lawfully. They will have no right to vote, serve on juries, and run for certain offices. And they may be rendered stateless, without a clear claim to citizenship in any country.”

The International Institute of New England, which has a presence in Lowell, is an organization aimed at assisting new immigrants and refugees arriving in the Greater Boston area. IINE President and CEO Jeffrey Thielman said in a phone call Tuesday afternoon the group has not yet joined in on the lawsuit, but they certainly support the effort and may join on later.

“This executive order should not be made law,” Thielman said.

IINE had been internally preparing for the possibility of a second Trump term as early as last January, Thielman said, when polls were already depicting a close race between Trump and then-candidate former President Joe Biden.

“We started scenario planning, and I read through the Project 2025 report … It was pretty clear what was coming,” said Thielman.

When Thielman first spoke with The Sun Tuesday, he said he hoped there would be an injunction to prevent the executive order from being enforced while the lawsuit is ongoing.

“I am sure Trump’s strategy is to get this to the Supreme Court … I hope they would strike it down, but the Supreme Court has undone precedent before,” said Thielman.

On Thursday, Thielman got his wish when a federal judge temporarily blocked the executive order. He said it was “the right thing to do.”

“The judge’s ruling made it clear this executive order was unconstitutional, and that gives me hope,” Thielman said Thursday.

In the same period, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was also directed to end its policy of not operating in schools or places of worship.

“I think it is morally wrong to go into schools and churches to arrest people unless they’ve committed a violent crime there,” Thielman said.

If the executive order ending birthright citizenship ultimately goes into effect, as well as the order ending humanitarian parole for migrants from four countries, Thielman said it would affect dozens, if not hundreds, of IINE’s immigrant and refugee clients, and any of their children born in the U.S.

Should the new Trump administration be successful in pushing its overall anti-immigration agenda, Thielman said he hopes some exceptions can be carved out. One example he gave was for Afghan refugees who assisted the U.S. during the war in Afghanistan and now face persecution by the Taliban.

Overall, Thielman said there is a net benefit to allowing immigration into Massachusetts.

“More than 90,000 immigrants came into Massachusetts last year. Those folks represent the future of our commonwealth … Our whole economy benefits from them,” said Thielman.

In the meantime, while so much remains up in the air, Thielman said they are working with their immigrant and refugee clients to provide rights training.

“We are going to keep supporting you,” Thielman said as a message to IINE clients and other refugees.