A United States federal judge has blocked the Donald Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order seeking to restrict access to birthright citizenship.
US District Judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday after immigrant rights groups challenged Trump’s August 6 executive order targeting what the administration described as “birth tourism.”
In her 35-page ruling, Boardman said the US Supreme Court had already affirmed the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship for children covered by the case.
She further held that Trump’s latest order was “almost certainly unconstitutional.”
The ruling represents another setback for Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship after the US Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt to implement similar restrictions.
Trump’s latest order targets children born in the US to parents who are either unlawfully present in the country or in the US on temporary visas.
The president has argued that some foreign nationals enter the United States ostensibly as tourists but do so with the intention of giving birth to children who would automatically acquire American citizenship.
His administration’s position has faced legal challenges, with lower courts previously ruling that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment generally guarantees citizenship to people born on US soil.
Immigrant rights groups welcomed Wednesday’s ruling.
Shana Khader, Legal Director at We Are CASA, said the Trump administration had repeatedly suffered legal setbacks over its attempts to restrict birthright citizenship.
The latest court decision comes as the Trump administration pursues a broader immigration agenda, including the deportation of undocumented migrants and efforts to remove deportation protections for nationals of several countries.
The administration’s birthright citizenship policy is expected to face further legal challenges as the dispute continues through the US courts.