Follow Us on Google
A United States federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that his new executive order is almost certainly unconstitutional.
US District Judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday after immigrant rights groups challenged the order, which Trump signed on August 6.
The ruling represents another legal setback for Trump’s efforts to narrow the longstanding right of children born on US soil to automatically obtain American citizenship.
Boardman said the Supreme Court had already established that children covered by the class action before her were citizens at birth, making the administration’s latest attempt to deny that status legally vulnerable.
“The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth’,” Boardman wrote, adding that Trump’s latest order was “almost certainly unconstitutional”.
Trump’s new directive followed the Supreme Court’s June ruling on his earlier attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. The latest order specifically targeted so-called “birth tourism” and sought to deny citizenship in certain circumstances involving children of foreign nationals, including some temporary visitors and people classified by the administration as “alien enemies”.
Other News
The administration had argued that the new case was premature because federal agencies had yet to issue detailed guidance explaining how the executive order would be implemented. Justice Department lawyers also maintained that the Supreme Court’s earlier decision did not rule out every possible exception to birthright citizenship.
Boardman rejected that argument and barred federal agencies from taking steps to deny, interfere with or refuse to recognise the citizenship of children covered by the class action. Agencies may, however, continue preparing implementation guidance under the ruling.
The decision was welcomed by immigrant rights organisations, which have repeatedly challenged Trump’s attempts to alter birthright citizenship. The latest ruling keeps the constitutional protection in place for the children covered by the lawsuit while the broader legal dispute continues.
Birthright citizenship is rooted in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, which provides citizenship to people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction. The issue has become a central part of Trump’s wider immigration crackdown since his return to the White House.
The latest court action follows a series of legal battles over Trump’s immigration policies, with the administration facing continued challenges over its authority to change citizenship rules through executive action.
