Key Takeaways
- A federal judge in Maryland has blocked President Trump's latest executive order on birthright citizenship.
- The judge ruled that the August 6 order is "almost certainly unconstitutional" and inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.
- The order targeted visitors accused of entering the country for "birth tourism."
- Immigrant rights advocates called the injunction another legal defeat for the administration's immigration agenda.
A U.S. federal judge has delivered another setback to President Donald Trump's immigration policies, blocking enforcement of his latest executive order targeting birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday after immigrant rights groups challenged the order, which was signed August 6 and aimed at what the administration calls "birth tourism."
In a 35-page ruling, Boardman wrote that the Supreme Court has already made the constitutional question clear.
"The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are 'citizens at birth'," she stated. Boardman added that the president's August order "is almost certainly unconstitutional."
The executive order was designed to deny automatic citizenship to children whose parents, in the government's view, came to the United States under the pretext of tourism but actually intended to give birth on American soil.
This is not Trump's first effort to restrict birthright citizenship. A previous executive order declared that children born to parents in the country illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become U.S. citizens. Lower courts blocked that measure, pointing to the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court subsequently rejected the administration's position.
Immigrant rights groups celebrated the outcome. Shana Khader, Legal Director at We Are CASA, a Maryland-based organization, said: "When it comes to attacking birthright citizenship, the Trump administration has lost before this court, lost before the Supreme Court, and lost again today."
Citizenship Under the 14th Amendment
The 14th Amendment states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Boardman's injunction protects the certified class of children covered by the lawsuit while the legal process continues, preserving a principle that has defined American citizenship for generations.
Broader Immigration Crackdown
The president's latest order is part of a wider campaign to limit immigration, including efforts to expel millions of undocumented migrants and remove deportation protections from nationals of more than a dozen countries. The court ruling does not end that campaign, but it reinforces the limits of executive action when measured against the Constitution.
Why This Matters
This decision reaffirms a core constitutional guarantee, even as the administration continues to press its immigration agenda through executive orders. With judges stepping in to protect birthright citizenship, the courts remain the central battleground over how far presidential immigration power can go.