Judge Blocks Trump’s Latest Attempt to Restrict Birthright Citizenship

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A federal judge in Maryland has blocked President Donald Trump’s latest effort to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that the administration cannot deny citizenship to children covered by a class action while the legal challenge continues.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, preventing the Trump administration from implementing key provisions of a new executive order targeting what it describes as “birth tourism.”

Boardman’s ruling came in a lawsuit brought by immigrant families and advocacy organisations challenging the administration’s attempt to narrow automatic citizenship for certain children born in the United States.

“The Supreme Court has spoken,” Boardman wrote in her decision, concluding that children covered by the certified class are citizens at birth.

Trump’s renewed push to limit birthright citizenship

Birthright citizenship is currently guaranteed under U.S. law for people born on American soil, subject to limited exceptions. The principle is rooted in the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 following the Civil War.

Trump has repeatedly sought to change that policy.

His administration previously issued an executive order declaring that children born in the United States to people who were unlawfully present or temporarily in the country would not automatically receive U.S. citizenship.

The Supreme Court rejected that attempt in June.

Trump returned to the issue in August with a narrower executive order that sought to restrict citizenship for children born into specific circumstances.

The order included children whose parents had certain connections to foreign diplomatic organisations or were classified as “alien enemies” of the United States.

It also targeted so called birth tourism, describing it as entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for a child.

U.S. authorities already consider deliberately misrepresenting the purpose of a visa application to obtain citizenship for a child to be grounds for visa restrictions.

Families raise fears over citizenship

The latest legal challenge was brought by immigrant families alongside We Are CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

The plaintiffs argued that the executive order created significant uncertainty for families and could potentially affect children whose parents had no intention of abusing the immigration system.

Some families expressed concern that their children could face citizenship problems because of circumstances involving extended relatives, including alleged connections to gangs in their countries of origin.

Others feared the order could be interpreted broadly enough to affect families who simply travelled to the United States and later had a child while there.

The administration argued that the challenge was premature because federal agencies had not yet issued detailed guidance explaining how the order would be enforced.

Boardman rejected that argument.

She wrote that regardless of what future guidance might say, the executive order itself instructs federal agencies to deny citizenship documents to broad categories of children.

Court ruling delivers another setback to Trump

The decision represents another major legal setback for Trump’s campaign to end or restrict birthright citizenship.

We Are CASA welcomed the ruling, with legal director Shana Khader accusing the administration of attempting to place its immigration agenda above constitutional protections.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The case is expected to continue as the broader constitutional dispute over birthright citizenship moves through the courts.

For now, the injunction prevents the administration from enforcing the challenged provisions against members of the certified class while the lawsuit proceeds.

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