Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship
NJ Attorney General: 'I am glad to see a judge already agreed his order is flagrantly unlawful.'
A federal judge in Seattle has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to end automatic citizenship for undocumented children born on American soil, agreeing with legal arguments filed there and in a similar lawsuit undertaken by the state of New Jersey.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled in a case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, those among 22 states, two cities and several civil-rights groups and individuals who sued almost immediately to halt Trump’s executive order, which would have taken effect on Feb. 19.
The judge, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has served more than four decades on the bench, repeatedly interrupted a Justice Department lawyer during arguments to question how the order could be considered constitutional. When the attorney, Brett Shumate, said he’d like a chance to explain during a full briefing, Coughenour told him the hearing was his chance, calling the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
» READ MORE: Why Trump's attempt to end birthright citizenship will be hard to achieve
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin joined 17 other Democratic attorneys general in a different but similar suit, suing Trump on Tuesday to stop him from ending what is called birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants.
“Even before Trump issued this order, I alongside many attorneys general made clear that terminating birthright citizenship would be blatantly unconstitutional,” Platkin said on Thursday. “I am glad to see a judge already agreed his order is flagrantly unlawful, and we look forward to prevailing in our case in the District of Massachusetts.”
There was no immediate indication when a decision in that case might come.
Trump signed the order on Inauguration Day, a directive that could impact hundreds of thousands of people born in this country. In 2022 there were about 255,000 births of citizen-children to mothers living in the country illegally, and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the suit filed in Seattle.
» READ MORE: New Jersey sued this week to try to block Trump's executive order
Efforts to reach newly installed Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday were unsuccessful on Thursday.
Trump and other opponents of birthright citizenship argue that it entices people to enter the country illegally, so that children who are born here will automatically gain American citizenship. Those citizens, at age 21, can sponsor close family members to live here permanently.
A new poll by Ipsos and the New York Times showed 55% opposition to ending birthright citizenship.
Birthright citizenship is guaranteed in the Constitution, specifically by the 14th Amendment, ratified after the end of the Civil War, which says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Trump’s order argued that children of noncitizens are not subject “to the jurisdiction of the United States.”
A president cannot amend the Constitution by himself.
“Presidents in this country have broad powers, but they are not kings,” Platkin said at a news conference where he announced the New Jersey lawsuit on Tuesday. “They do not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution.”
Inquirer staff writer Gillian McGoldrick and The Associated Press contributed to this report.