A US federal judge on Thursday temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship, calling it “clearly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort to challenge the order. stated.
The temporary restraining order sought by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington was the first to be heard before a judge and applies nationally.
The lawsuit is one of five brought by 22 states and several immigrant rights groups across the country. The lawsuit includes personal testimony from the attorney general who is a U.S. citizen by birthright and the names of pregnant women who fear their children will not become U.S. citizens.
U.S. District Judge John Cognore, a Ronald Reagan appointee, opened the hearing by telling administration lawyers that the order “boggles the mind.”
“This is a patently unconstitutional order,” Cognore told Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate. Coughenour said he has been on the bench for more than four decades and cannot recall seeing another case where the challenged action was so clearly unconstitutional.
Shumate said he respectfully disagreed and asked the judge for an opportunity to be fully briefed on the merits of the case, instead of the judge issuing a 14-day restraining order to stay the execution. be
Trump’s executive order, which he signed on Inauguration Day, is set to take effect on February 19. According to a lawsuit, it could affect millions of people born in the country. In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 to two such parents, according to the four-state lawsuit filed in Seattle.
The Trump administration argued in papers filed Wednesday that states have no cause of action to challenge the order and that no damages have yet been incurred, so temporary relief is not sought. Administration lawyers also clarified that the executive order applies only to people born after February 19, when it is scheduled to take effect.
The United States is among the 30 countries that apply the principle of birthright citizenship – jus soli or “right to the land”. Most are in the US; Canada and Mexico are among them.
The lawsuit argues that the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees citizenship to people born and naturalized in the U.S., and states have been interpreting that amendment for a century.
Ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, the amendment states: “All persons born in or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”
Trump’s order emphasizes that children of noncitizens are not subject to United States jurisdiction and directs federal agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children whose at least one parent is not a citizen. be
A landmark case on birthright citizenship came in 1898. The Supreme Court ruled that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country.
But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that the case clearly applies to children born to parents who were both legal immigrants. They say it’s less clear whether that applies to children born to parents who are in the country illegally.
Trump’s order prompted the attorney general to share his personal connections to birthright citizenship. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, for example, a U.S. citizen by birth and the nation’s first Chinese-American elected attorney general, said the case was personal to him.
“There is no legitimate legal debate on this question. But the fact that Trump’s death is wrong won’t stop him from causing serious harm to American families like mine right now,” Tong said this week.
The order blocking the executive order also includes a lawsuit by a pregnant woman, identified as “Carmen,” who is not a citizen but has lived in the United States for more than 15 years and has a visa. Pending application leading to permanent residency status.
“Depriving children of the ‘priceless treasure’ of citizenship is a serious injury,” the lawsuit states. “It denies them the full membership in American society that they deserve.”
