The blizzard of executive orders forecast for the first hours of Donald J. Trump’s second presidency sets the stage for immediate conflict with blue states like Connecticut over everything from Trump’s promised ban on trans women in sports to an immediate end of birthright citizenship. Waiting will be Attorney General William Tong, the U.S.-born son of immigrants and one of 23 state Democratic attorneys general who have been strategizing in a multi-state working group over how, where and when Trump will act on his team’s promise to “shock and awe” America upon returning to power at noon Monday. “It’s formal, it’s coordinated, it’s detailed, and we’re going to jump on it as soon as he puts his hand on the Bible,” Tong said. But jump on what? Will Trump attempt to mobilize the Connecticut National Guard for a promised roundup of immigrants who lack legal status? Will he issue orders conflicting with Connecticut laws on gay rights, gender identification or ballot access? Will he really try to redefine who is a citizen?  “I don’t know how they’re going to approach it, where they’re going to hit us,” Tong said. “I don’t think that the incoming administration is going to walk out and say, ‘Here’s the list of the first 100 things that we’re going to do.’ ” Inauguration Day coincides with the Connecticut state holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but Tong and members of his staff will be working, as will other Democratic attorneys general across the country. Tong said they will be looking for orders that conflict with state laws or violate the Constitution. “I’m building my day around being here so that at noon, when he puts his hand on the Bible, we’ll be ready,” Tong said, sitting in his office across from the state Capitol in Hartford. “And as soon as any of us picks up any kind of activity on any of these issues, we’re all going to pick up the phone and get on a Zoom or a call and figure it out.” Tong, 51, the son of immigrants from China and Taiwan, has established himself as an eager and quotable combatant willing to debate Trump’s darkly cynical view of birthright citizenship — the longstanding and court-sanctioned principle that babies born in the U.S. are citizens, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. I’m building my day around being here so that at noon, when he puts his hand on the Bible, we’ll be ready.Attorney General William Tong “This policy is a reward for breaking the laws of the United States, and is obviously a magnet helping draw the flood of illegals across our borders,” Trump said in a scripted campaign video last year. “They come by the millions and millions and millions. They come from mental institutions. They come from jails, prisoners, some of the toughest, meanest people you’ll ever see.” Trump has derided their children as “anchor babies.” “I’m an anchor baby,” Tong said, perhaps being more figurative than literal. “My father was nearly deported before I was born. So there’s no daylight between me and the people who have a target on their backs.” “Anchor baby” typically is a pejorative term referring to a child born to non-citizens, often with the intent of obtaining legal status. That was not the case with Tong, whose parents were non-citizens, but had legal status when they started a family of five, beginning with William. Attorney General William Tong’s mother, Nancy Tong, waves after William gave a celebration speech at Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford after his election in November 2022. “Because of this great state, our wonderful neighbors, our friends, our family, we’ve made a long trip from Park Street, a long trip from a hot Chinese restaurant kitchen to the Attorney General’s office,” he said. “It is my honor as your attorney general to help make us stronger.” Credit: Yehyun Kim / CT Mirror He said his parents, Ady and Nancy Tong, had green cards when he was born in Hartford in 1973. His mother, Nancy, came as a dependent of her father, who emigrated from Taiwan for a job as a ballistic engineer at Colt’s firearms. How his father, Ady, obtained a green card is a matter of family lore.  “My point, of course, is that there is no effective difference between me  and my family and other immigrant families who either have no status, mixed status or complicated status, and they have a child here. And my life could have been very, very different if I was not a citizen at my birth,” Tong said. Ady Tong came to the U.S. from China, via Hong Kong and Canada, and opened a restaurant in Hartford while on a visa. As the visa was about to expire, an INS agent warned that he would have to leave or face deportation. Tong said his parents suspect that a restaurant competitor had flagged his father’s status to the INS.  Ady wrote a six-page, hand-written letter to President Richard Nixon pleading for help, a story Tong has frequently told. Its impact was unclear, but the INS agent returned with a letter saying there would be no deportation, whether through a visa extension or other means. Ady soon obtained a green card, and both parents became citizens. Ady and Nancy opened a bigger, successful restaurant in Wethersfield that paid for an American dream, a house in West Hartford and top-flight private schools: For their oldest, that meant Renbrook, Phillips Andover, Brown and the University of Chicago Law School. All of it was managed, Tong said, by “selling a lot of egg rolls.” Trump’s intention, at least as detailed in the video last year, would be to limit birthright citizenship to babies with at least one parent who was “a citizen or a legal resident.” He also vows mass deportations of those in the U.S. without legal status, hinting at using the National Guard to help. Attorney General William Tong on WNPR’s “Where We Live” last week. Credit: Shahrzad Rasekh / CT Mirror Tong said the president is casually flirting with harming immigrant families — most of whom he says have a mix of those with and without legal status — and the U.S. economy. “As I’ve said a few times now, America runs on two things: Dunkin’ and immigrant workers, including undocumented workers,” Tong said. “You know this shit is going to get real when people stop showing up for work, right?” There is a uniquely Chinese aspect to the history of birthright citizenship, as established by the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” I’m an anchor baby. My father was nearly deported before I was born. So there’s no daylight between me and the people who have a target on their backs.William Tong The amendment was adopted in 1868 to assert the U.S. citizenship and rights of recently freed slaves and overturn the notorious finding in the Dred Scott case a decade earlier: Enslaved people were not citizens, and the courts could offer no protection, even in territories where slavery was banned. But the full reach of the 14th Amendment was not affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court until 1898, a period of deep anti-Chinese sentiment. Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco, was denied reentry to the U.S. after a trip to China under the Chinese Exclusion Act. The government refused to recognize his citizenship. By a 6-2 vote, the court concluded language in the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed the circumstances of his birth and could not be limited by an act of Congress. Trump does not find the 126-year-old precedent persuasive. “On day one of my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic US citizenship,” Trump said. “I would be the first to sue,” Tong flatly told NBC last month, evincing a certain bravado refined over six years of legal combat with a line that won him an invite for an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC on Jan. 8. In interviews with the Connecticut Mirror since then, Tong was more circumspect about calling the shot on a suit. “I have a unique and important story to tell on birthright citizenship,” Tong said. “That doesn’t mean that we’ll do it exactly the way I want to do it, right? We’re going to figure out what’s best for that issue and then make a judgment as to strategically how to pursue it.” He was elected attorney general in 2018 and took office on Jan. 9, 2019 at the mid point of Trump’s first term. By July 4 of that year, Tong had confronted Trump in one way or another an average of more than three times a month, often by the simple act of signing onto a comment letter in an administrative proceeding; other times, by joining multi-state suits as a plaintiff or intervenor. His predecessor, George Jepsen, said Trump’s first win was a surprise, and  Democratic attorneys general had none of the war plans now in place, though they quickly engaged. “In terms of lessons learned, I think it’s important that Democrats not look like they are simply opposing everything the new administration does,” Jepsen said. “It’s more important to pick more strategic fights, as opposed to a rush to the courtroom at every turn.” Attorney General William Tong made Connecticut one of 17 states to sue Trump over foreign student visas in 2020. Credit: Mark Pazniokas / CT Mirror Perhaps surprisingly, given his activism during Trump 1.0 and his own ambitions for higher office, Tong said he shares that sentiment, especially since his election as the president-elect of the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General.  “It’s going to be a balance. I’m going to be aggressive in in protecting Connecticut and Connecticut’s interests, and I’m never going to shy away from that,” Tong said. “But I’m not going to pick a fight and be needlessly partisan, because I think I have a broader responsibility.” But the fights inevitably will come, as might domestic political complications.  Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat and ally, will reveal by this summer if he is seeking a third term in 2026. “If the governor decides to run again, I will be the first to endorse, and I made a commitment to the governor that I wouldn’t get ahead of him,” Tong said. “He’s the leader of our party. He’s the governor. He gets to decide what he’s doing before anybody else gets to decide what they would like to do.” And if he doesn’t run? “I think we’ve got to focus on a couple of things. You know, number one, who’s ready to stand up for Connecticut and fight for Connecticut, especially against an adverse federal government?” Tong said. “Who has experience doing that?” Tong has someone in mind.