GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge Wednesday furthered a block of President Trump’s executive order preventing the children of migrants without legal status from receiving birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman at the conclusion of a hearing in Greenbelt said Trump’s order “runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth” and likely violates an 1898 Supreme Court decision on the issue.
“The United States Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the president’s interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment,” Boardman said. “In fact, no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation. This court will not be the first.”
A separate federal judge in Seattle previously put Trump’s executive order on hold. But that ruling will expire Thursday, when that judge will hold another hearing.
Boardman’s ruling, unless overturned by an appeals court, will remain intact until she can issue a final ruling on the merits of the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims, which is likely to take months.
Trump on his first day in office signed the executive order narrowing birthright citizenship so that it doesn’t extend to children born on U.S. soil to parents without permanent legal status, beginning with babies born Feb. 19. It is part of a flurry of immigration actions Trump has taken during his first few weeks in office.
Eric Hamilton, deputy assistant attorney general for the civil division, insisted at the hearing that the Trump administration’s position aligned with the 1898 Supreme Court precedent central to the case, United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
“We have not taken a position that Wong Kim Ark is bad law. We think it is consistent with the rule that we have laid out for the Citizenship Clause,” Hamilton said.
But Boardman rejected that notion and said a ruling blocking Trump’s order nationwide was necessary to protect the public interest.
“Today, virtually every baby born on U.S. soil is a citizen upon birth. That is the law and tradition of our country. That law and tradition will remain the status quo pending the resolution of this case,” said Boardman, an appointee of former President Biden.
“The government will not be harmed by a preliminary injunction that prevents it from enforcing an executive order likely to be found unconstitutional,” she added.
Wednesday’s proceeding in Maryland is the first in a blitz of hearings set to take place across the country over the next week in most of the nine lawsuits challenging Trump’s birthright citizenship order.
The case in Maryland was brought by two immigrant rights organizations and five anonymous expecting mothers without permanent legal status. The other cases involve 22 Democratic state attorneys general, the American Civil Liberties Union and Santa Clara County, Calif., among other groups.
The challengers emphasize that the courts have only recognized few exceptions to the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee for all people born on U.S. soil: children of diplomats, people born on foreign ships, children of enemies in hostile occupation and Native American tribe members.
“Generations of children have grown up with that promise,” Joseph Mead, special litigation counsel at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, which is representing the Maryland challengers, said at Wednesday’s hearing.
Updated at 11:45 a.m. EST
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