Trump dealt another blow after judge blocks birthright citizenship executive order

Another federal judge has temporarily struck down Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to unilaterally redefine the 14th Amendment’s clause on birthright citizenship.

Maryland District Judge Deborah L. Boardman granted a temporary restraining order on Wednesday after a group of 16 pregnant women sued the Trump administration in the hours after the president signed an order that seeks to deny citizenship to certain American-born children of immigrants.

Trump’s order “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth” and likely violates Supreme Court precedent, which “has resoundingly rejected” the president’s characterization of the 14th Amendment, Boardman said.

“In fact, no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation,” she said. “This court will not be the first.”

The lawsuit from CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project is among several similar lawsuits from pregnant women, civil rights groups and state officials challenging the order, which is expected to be reviewed by the Supreme Court once a lengthy legal battle plays out in courts across the country.

Last month, a judge in Washington state delivered a blistering criticism of the president’s “blatantly unconstitutional” action from the bench in a Seattle courtroom.

“I’ve been on the bench for over four decades. I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” Ronald Reagan-appointed District Judge John Coughenour said January 23.

That temporary order was set to expire this week. Boardman’s decision will remain in place while the legal battle plays out, unless overturned by an appeals court.

Several judges reviewing challenges to Trump’s birthright citizenship order are expected to issue more decisions as soon as this week on whether to block it.

Plaintiffs in the Maryland case fear not only the abrupt revocation of their child’s constitutional rights but the possibility of their future children entering a stateless limbo, leaving families to navigate complex legal and humanitarian issues in what is already a complicated immigration system.

Adelina, another plaintiff in the lawsuit, has been living in the United States for seven years and is currently six months pregnant. She has one other 5-year-old child, who was born in the United States and is a citizen.

“It pains her to think that one of her children will have more benefits than the other, even though they were both born here,” according to the complaint. “She is concerned that if her unborn child is not considered a United States citizen, they will experience significant hardship and not have the same opportunity as their sibling.”

The 14th Amendment was “specifically enshrined” to “ensure that no one — not even the President — could deny children born in America their rightful place as citizens,” according to a separate lawsuit from a coalition of civil rights groups representing immigrant mothers.

If Trump’s order is allowed to go into effect, people born in the United States could be denied passports and Social Security numbers, jeopardizing their ability to travel and work within the country and receive government benefits and protections afforded to citizens.

The 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

Trump’s order seeks to deny citizenship to newborn children in the United States if their parents are “unlawfully” present or have “lawful but temporary” status in the country.