Judge again blocks Trump bid to narrow birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON (MNTV) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, ruling that a new executive order cannot undo the Supreme Court’s June decision affirming that children born in the U.S. are generally citizens at birth.

The order, issued Aug. 6, sought to deny automatic citizenship to children of foreign diplomats and certain employees of foreign embassies and international bodies, children of parents the administration designates “alien enemies,” and children of mothers it alleges traveled to the U.S. specifically to give birth. 

The administration has not established clear procedures for several provisions, including how officials would distinguish ordinary travel from what it calls “birth tourism.”

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman ruled that the Supreme Court’s earlier decision had already resolved the key questions. 

“No presidential executive order can undo what the Supreme Court has done,” she wrote in a 35-page opinion, warning the new order could threaten children whose citizenship the court had already protected if the administration applied broad or discretionary designations to their parents. 

The case was brought by the immigrant-rights groups CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, along with affected individuals. 

Co-founder Conchita Cruz said families should not have to return to court to defend a principle the Supreme Court had settled. 

For families in the original case — including women who gave birth during the litigation — the ruling renewed anxiety over whether the threat to their children’s status has truly passed.