Photo by Nitish Meena on Unsplash
On Thursday, January 23, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, or automatic American citizenship for all babies born in the United States.
The executive order—called Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship—was part of the flurry of anti-immigrant EOs Trump signed on his first day in office. Ending birthright citizenship would be essentially rewriting the Constitution. Citizenship for all people born in the U.S. became precedent with Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
In a hearing held on Thursday, three days after Trump’s executive order, Federal District Court judge John C. Coughenour signed a restraining order that temporarily blocks Trump’s EO from going into effect for fourteen days. “This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said. “Where were the lawyers when this decision was being made?” He continued, “Frankly, I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order. It just boggles my mind.”
Coughenour sided with the four states—Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon—who sued the Trump administration in response to the executive order. Twenty-two states as well as groups like the ACLU have since sued to have Trump’s order recalled.
The order (which Trump has told reporters that he would appeal to reinstate) would declare that children born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S. after Feb. 19, 2025 would not be considered citizens. The change would also affect visa holders who are in the country legally but temporarily, meaning that the children of tourists and students with visas, for example, could not be considered citizens if born in the U.S. if their parents are noncitizens.
Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship is one of several blatantly anti-immigrant executive orders that Trump signed on Day One, and advocates worry that EOs like the one ending birthright citizenship would allow for very fast deportations with very minimal due process.
Joseph W. Mead, an attorney at Georgetown Law School’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, who represents four pregnant mothers, said, “Mothers today now have to fear that their children will not be given the U.S. citizenship that they’re entitled to.”
