A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship for children born in the United States to non-citizen parents. The decision, issued on Thursday, followed a lawsuit filed by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon, which argue that birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour issued the ruling in a case that challenges Trump’s directive. The states argue that the 14th Amendment, along with U.S. Supreme Court precedents, guarantees citizenship to all children born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. Trump’s executive order, signed on his first day in office, instructed U.S. agencies to deny citizenship to children born in the U.S. if neither parent is a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident.
Critics, including civil rights organizations and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, claim that Trump’s directive violates the Constitution. Lawsuits challenging the order emphasize concerns raised by pregnant women, including some state attorneys general who themselves are birthright citizens. These legal challenges argue that the executive order contradicts over a century of legal interpretation and precedent.
The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, explicitly states: “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.” This language has been understood to guarantee birthright citizenship for all individuals born on U.S. soil, a principle upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in various rulings.
Trump’s executive order, scheduled to take effect on February 19, 2025, could affect hundreds of thousands of children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents. Data cited in the lawsuit estimates that in 2022, approximately 255,000 children were born to mothers living in the country illegally, and about 153,000 were born to parents who were both undocumented.
The U.S. is one of about 30 countries that follows the principle of jus soli, or the “right of the soil,” which grants citizenship based on the birthplace of the child. Trump’s order challenges this long-standing practice by asserting that children born to non-citizen parents do not fall under U.S. jurisdiction because they are not considered “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States.
The issue of birthright citizenship has been a subject of debate for decades. The 1898 Supreme Court case of Wong Kim Ark brought it into prominence, where the Court ruled that a child born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrant parents was entitled to U.S. citizenship. Immigration restriction advocates argue that this ruling applied only to children of legal immigrants, questioning whether it applies to children born to undocumented parents.
The temporary block on Trump’s executive order marks a significant development in the ongoing legal battle over the future of birthright citizenship in the U.S. The case is likely to continue to evolve, with the final decision expected to shape the future of immigration policy in the country.
