A federal judge in Maryland has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing its latest effort to restrict automatic citizenship for some children born in the United States.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday in a case filed by CASA Inc. and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. The two immigration advocacy organizations previously challenged an earlier version of the administration’s birthright citizenship policy.
The injunction prevents the federal government from applying the new restrictions to members of a certified class that includes children born after Feb. 19, 2025, whose parents were not lawfully present in the country at the time of their birth.
In a 35-page opinion, Boardman wrote that the directive was likely unconstitutional as applied to the affected group. She cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued in June concerning President Donald Trump’s initial executive order on birthright citizenship.
Five Supreme Court justices concluded that the 14th Amendment generally grants citizenship to children born on U.S. soil, including those whose parents are in the country without legal authorization. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also voted to block the earlier order, although his decision was based on federal law rather than the constitutional question.
Trump later issued two additional executive orders aimed partly at what the administration describes as “birth tourism,” or traveling to the United States primarily to give birth.
The directives also sought to broaden the categories of people whose U.S.-born children would not receive automatic citizenship. Those categories included certain children born to a parent classified as an enemy alien or a member of a foreign terrorist organization.
The Justice Department argued that the latest restrictions were narrower than the earlier policy and that the legal challenge was premature because the directives had not yet taken effect.
Boardman rejected those arguments, finding that the affected children satisfied the 14th Amendment’s requirements for citizenship at birth.
The injunction is temporary while the case continues through the federal court system. The White House had not provided a response at the time of the original report.
