US Federal judge blocks Trump administration's new birthright citizenship order

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order aimed at restricting who qualifies for birthright citizenship in the United States. US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Greenbelt, Maryland, issued a preliminary injunction after immigrant rights advocates asked her to halt enforcement of President Donald Trump’s latest order. The groups had previously obtained a ruling from Boardman blocking Trump’s initial 2025 executive order seeking to curtail birthright citizenship.

The latest legal battle follows a June 30 decision by the US Supreme Court rejecting Trump’s earlier attempt to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents were neither US citizens nor lawful permanent residents, commonly known as green card holders. The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Barbara v. Trump centered on the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which grants US citizenship to people born in the country who are ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision, Trump signed a new executive order on August 6 that specifically targeted so-called 'birth tourism', a practice in which women travel to the United States to give birth so their children can receive automatic citizenship. The order also sought to deny citizenship to certain children if one of their parents works for a foreign government in the United States, engages in fraud or a commercial transaction to obtain citizenship, or is classified as an 'alien enemy'.

After Trump issued the new order, attorneys representing babies who could be denied citizenship under the administration’s policies asked Boardman to block its enforcement. They also sought protections ensuring that the citizenship of children covered by their class-action lawsuit would continue to be recognized. Boardman agreed, concluding that the latest order was almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class.

“The latest order is almost certainly unconstitutional as applied to the certified class for the simple reason that the Supreme Court in Barbara already decided that the children in the class ​are citizens at birth.” "The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are 'citizens at birth,'" she wrote. The judge’s order prevents federal agencies, including the US Department of State, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration, from taking actions that would interfere with, deny or fail to recognize the citizenship of children covered by the class action. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Administration says lawsuit is premature

The plaintiffs include immigrant rights organizations CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. Last year, the groups persuaded Boardman to join several lower-court judges in blocking Trump’s original birthright citizenship order before the Supreme Court considered the issue. “Immigrant families should not have to come back to court to defend the rights of their U.S.-born children and ​others whose citizenship is being questioned by ​a new executive order," Conchita Cruz, ⁠co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, said in a statement.

Justice Department attorneys argued that the preliminary injunction was inappropriate because Trump’s latest order is narrower than the sweeping measure challenged in the earlier lawsuit. The administration also argued that the lawsuit was premature because federal agencies had not yet issued the public guidance needed to explain how the new directive would be implemented. That guidance was expected by Saturday, according to the administration.

But Boardman determined that immediate court intervention was necessary. Although Justice Department lawyers argued that the order would apply only prospectively, the judge said its language indicated otherwise. "This Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President's most recent ⁠attempt to ​strip the right to citizenship from them," she wrote.

Boardman’s ruling does not prevent federal agencies from issuing guidance explaining how the administration intended to implement Trump’s order. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the US State Department had drafted proposed guidance that would require parents applying for US passports for their children to provide evidence of their own citizenship or immigration status. The ruling represents another significant legal setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to narrow birthright citizenship and comes after the Supreme Court rejected the president’s earlier attempt to impose broader restrictions.