US federal judge indefinitely blocks Trump’s order ending birthright citizenship
A federal judge in Maryland has indefinitely blocked US President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for undocumented immigrants and foreign visitors with temporary visas.
Judge Deborah L. Boardman of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday after a court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland. The case was filed by civil rights groups seeking to block Trump’s order. The injunction applies nationally, according to Xinhua news agency.
“The Maryland lawsuit is one of at least six different federal cases brought against Trump’s order by a total of 22 Democratic-led states and more than half a dozen civil rights groups,” The Washington Post reported.
Trump signed the order hours after taking office on January 20, directing federal agencies to halt the recognition of citizenship for children born after February 19 if neither parent is a US citizen nor a permanent resident.
More than 20 states and civil rights groups immediately challenged the order, calling it blatantly “unconstitutional.”
On January 23, Senior US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle, Washington, temporarily blocked the executive order for at least 14 days as lawsuits in Washington state and other jurisdictions proceeded.
The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
Trump’s executive order argued that the 14th Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship those born in the United States who are not “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” The order was based on the premise that individuals in the United States illegally or on a visa were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and therefore not eligible for citizenship.
Opponents of the order argue that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, has been settled law for over a century.
They cite an 1898 US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Wong Kim Ark, a Chinese-American man denied reentry to the United States on the grounds that he was not a citizen. The court ruled that children born in the United States, including those born to immigrants, could not be denied citizenship.
