A federal judge in Maryland has halted the enforcement of another executive order from US President Donald Trump seeking to limit birthright citizenship for certain children born in the country.
US District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday after two immigration advocacy organisations challenged the administration’s latest directive. The groups had also opposed Trump’s earlier effort to change the rules governing automatic citizenship at birth.
In a 35-page decision, Boardman concluded that the new order was “almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class.” She relied in part on a Supreme Court ruling from June that struck down Trump’s initial Day 1 executive order attempting to restrict birthright citizenship.
“This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them,” Boardman, a Biden appointee, wrote.
Under the judge’s order, the administration cannot apply the new restriction to children born after February 19, 2025, where at least one parent was not lawfully present in the US at the time of the child’s birth.
In June, five Supreme Court justices affirmed that the 14th Amendment protects automatic citizenship for nearly all children born on US soil, including those whose parents are in the country without legal status. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also voted to prevent Trump’s order from taking effect, although his position was based on statutory grounds.
Roughly a month after the Supreme Court ruling, Trump issued two additional executive orders targeting what his administration describes as “birth tourism”, in which people travel to the US primarily to give birth there.
The directives would also broaden the categories of children who could be denied automatic citizenship. Among them are children born to a parent who is an “alien enemy or member of foreign terrorist organizations”, alongside other categories outlined in the orders.
The latest legal challenge was brought by CASA, Inc., and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, Inc. The organisations had previously obtained a nationwide injunction from Boardman’s court against Trump’s earlier birthright citizenship policy.
The Justice Department argued that the new measures were narrower than the policy previously blocked by the courts. Government lawyers also maintained that the case was premature because the latest order had not yet been put into effect.
Boardman disagreed, describing those arguments as “unpersuasive”. She also said the administration had adopted a “distorted interpretation” of the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Though the defendants may not like it, the Barbara Court’s conclusion was clear: The children in the class ‘satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause’—place and jurisdiction—and they are thus ‘citizens at birth,’” the judge wrote.
