Judge Blocks Trump's Narrowed Birthright Order — SkimNews
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- Deborah L. Boardman issued a preliminary injunction in Maryland on Wednesday blocking the order until the immigrant families' class-action lawsuit is resolved.
- Trump issued the narrowed order in August, targeting children born to adults connected to foreign embassies or organizations, people considered “alien enemies,” and those who paid to access birthright citizenship.
- The order defined birth tourism as entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa specifically to give birth, while plaintiffs said ordinary airfare purchases could wrongly trigger denials.
- We Are CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection joined immigrant families in challenging the restrictions, citing fears about gang allegations involving relatives abroad.
- The administration argued that blocking the order was premature because official enforcement guidance had not yet been issued, but Boardman rejected that argument because the order itself commands agencies to deny citizenship documents.
- The Supreme Court struck down Trump's earlier birthright-citizenship order in June, and Boardman relied on its recognition that the certified class members are “citizens at birth.”
- The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, underpins the current rule granting citizenship to nearly anyone born on U.S. soil, subject to limited exceptions.
Why it matters: The injunction prevents the narrowed order from being enforced against the certified class while the class-action lawsuit proceeds, despite the administration's claim that enforcement guidance had not yet been issued. The direct beneficiaries are immigrant families in the case; the administration cannot strip citizenship from those children through the order during the injunction.
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