<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A federal judge in Maryland blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order banning so-called “birth tourism” to prevent the children of noncitizens from automatically receiving birthright citizenship.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In her preliminary injunction issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, appointed by President Biden, rejected the administration’s defense of the executive order. Trump signed the order last month to deny citizenship for any children born in the United States to foreign parents illegally residing in the country who “engaged in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship for the person, or engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship,” according to the text.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The president signed two executive orders, one focused on birth tourism and the other on birthright citizenship more broadly.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">These actions followed a Supreme Court ruling that struck down Trump’s initial birthright citizenship order, which he signed on his first day back in office last year. Boardman cited the June 30 ruling in her opinion.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are ‘citizens at birth,'” she stated, adding that the high court’s decision on the matter “is the law of the land” and “the President must follow it.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Boardman’s preliminary injunction prohibits the new executive order from applying to any children born after February 19, 2025, which is 30 days after the signing of the initial birthright citizenship order. The injunction does not apply to any children born before that date.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The plaintiffs in this case are challenging the administration’s actions regarding birth tourism under the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which establishes automatic birthright citizenship for any person born in the U.S.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The Department of Justice argued that Trump’s new executive order does not conflict with the Supreme Court’s June decision because it was designed around the “narrow exceptions” that the high court left open. Boardman stated that the DOJ’s argument was a “distorted interpretation” of the Supreme Court’s ruling.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Attorney General Todd Blanche disagreed with the judge’s conclusion and indicated that he would bring the issue back to the Supreme Court if necessary.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We crafted the EO around and in concurrence and understanding with what the Supreme Court said in their decision,” Blanche said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle late Wednesday. “So, we’ll continue to fight as President Trump has talked about for many years, and if we have to go back to the Supreme Court, we will.”</p>