A federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order Thursday, blocking President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants. The decision represents a significant legal setback for the administration’s aggressive immigration agenda.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, ruled in favor of four Democratic-led states — Washington, Oregon, Arizona, and Illinois — that argued the executive order would unlawfully strip constitutional rights from an estimated 150,000 children born annually in the U.S. under the current interpretation of the 14th Amendment.
“Absent a temporary restraining order, children born in the Plaintiff States will soon be rendered undocumented, subject to removal or detention, and many stateless,” the states stated in their lawsuit.
Judge Coughenour strongly rebuked the executive order during Thursday’s hearing. “I can’t remember another case where the case presented is as clear as it is here. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,” he said.
Trump’s Executive Order Sparks Legal Firestorm
President Trump signed the order on his first day in office as part of a sweeping strategy to tighten immigration enforcement. The order restricts birthright citizenship to children born to at least one U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident. It also excludes children born to individuals in the U.S. temporarily or without legal status.
The administration argues that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause has been misinterpreted. “The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’” the executive order claims.
However, legal experts and opponents swiftly denounced the action, citing longstanding precedent affirming automatic citizenship for most individuals born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Birthright citizenship, they note, was enshrined in the Constitution to grant full citizenship to freed slaves following the Civil War.
Broader Implications and Challenges Ahead
The ruling marks Trump’s first significant legal hurdle in pursuing an immigration crackdown. Already, 22 Democratic-led states and two cities — San Francisco and Washington, D.C. — have filed separate lawsuits against the executive order in federal court, arguing that the president lacks unilateral authority to reinterpret the Constitution.
Democratic-run states and activist groups are expected to mount sustained legal opposition, reflecting the contentious battles over Trump’s immigration policies during his first term. The administration has already initiated mass deportations of undocumented immigrants with criminal records and deployed military resources to the southern border, which Trump declared a national emergency on day one of his second term.
What Comes Next
While the temporary restraining order halts enforcement of Trump’s executive order, the case is expected to proceed through the courts, potentially reaching the Supreme Court. Until then, the debate over birthright citizenship remains a focal point in the ongoing clash between the president and his opponents on immigration policy.
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