Judge Blocks Trump Curb on Citizenship 09/03 06:46

   

   (AP) -- A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's latest attempt 
to limit birthright citizenship, granting a preliminary injunction against an 
executive order that the administration said would target "birth tourism."

   U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman in Maryland on Wednesday issued the 
injunction until a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant families and 
advocacy groups is resolved.

   "The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are 'citizens 
at birth,'" Boardman, appointed by President Joe Biden, wrote in Wednesday's 
ruling.

   Birthright citizenship is guaranteed under current law for anyone who is 
born on U.S. soil, with a few exceptions. The law stretches back to 1868, when 
the 14th Amendment was ratified in the aftermath of the Civil War.

   But Trump has long wanted to end birthright citizenship, issuing a previous 
executive order declaring that children born to people who are in the United 
States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens. The Supreme Court 
struck down that attempt in June.

   In August, the president tried again with a narrowed executive order that 
appeared to restrict automatic citizenship for specific categories of people, 
including children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or 
organizations or to anyone considered an "alien enemy" of the United States.

   The order defined birth tourism as someone who enters the United States on a 
"nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil." Birth 
tourism is already considered fraud and grounds to restrict a visa if someone 
seeks one specifically to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child.

   The order sought to deny citizenship to children born to adults who "engaged 
in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship," and 
some families said they feared their children could be denied citizenship 
simply because they purchased airfare to come to the U.S. and got pregnant 
after they arrived.

   Families and organizations who sued over the birthright citizenship 
restrictions told the court that the executive branch has taken a broad view of 
who qualifies as an alien enemy, sometimes relying on speculation or 
misinformation to make that determination.

   Others said they feared their children would be denied citizenship because a 
member of the parents' extended family was connected to a gang in their home 
country, even though the parents were not gang members.

   Uncertainty surrounding the order left them with confusion and fear, the 
families said.

   They were joined in the lawsuit by We Are CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy 
Project and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

   The administration's attorneys argued that the request to block the order 
was premature and said the federal agencies tasked with enforcing it would use 
"appropriate measures" to do so, relying on official guidance that hasn't been 
issued yet.

   The judge rejected that argument.

   "No matter what the guidance says, the 2026 Executive Order commands 
agencies to deny citizenship documents to several broad categories of 
children," Boardman wrote.

   "The White House must recognize it will not succeed in stripping children of 
their right to citizenship, evading binding court decisions or placing the 
president's anti-immigrant agenda above the Constitution," Shana Khader, legal 
director at We Are CASA, said in a prepared statement.

   The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.