US district court docket blocks President Donald Trump’s government order curbing birthright citizenship

In a big authorized setback for the Trump administration, US district decide Deborah Boardman issued a nationwide preliminary injunction on February 5, 2025, blocking President Donald Trump’s government order aimed toward limiting birthright citizenship.
The chief order, titled ‘Defending the That means and Worth of American Citizenship,’ signed by President Trump on Day 1, sought to make kids born in US on or after February 19, 2025, ineligible for citizenship by start, if their mother and father had been both unlawfully current or held non-immigrant visas like H-1B or L visas. In different phrases, not less than one guardian was required to be a US citizen or inexperienced card holder. As TOI has identified this is able to adversely affect lakhs of Indians within the US who wait endlessly for many years to acquire an employment linked inexperienced card.
The lawsuit was filed within the US district court docket of Maryland by 5 undocumented pregnant girls (together with a physician) and two nonprofit organizations that assist immigrants. Decide Boardman dominated that the chief order conflicts with the Fourteenth Modification to the US Structure and contradicts the precedent set by the US Supreme Courtroom affirming birthright citizenship. “Citizenship is a most treasured proper,” she said in her ruling, and emphasised the irreparable hurt that the chief order would inflict on affected households.
This nationwide preliminary injunction follows an earlier emergency non permanent restraining order by Decide John Coughenour of a district court docket in Washington. The decide had held President Trump’s government order to be flatly opposite to the Fourteenth Modification’s textual content and historical past, century-old Supreme Courtroom precedent, longstanding Government Department interpretation, and the Immigration and Nationality Act.
In each instances the judges level out that the plaintiffs are exceedingly more likely to succeed on the deserves of their claims. Whereas Decide Coughenour’s order quickly blocked the chief motion, Decide Boardman’s preliminary injunction will stay in place till the lawsuit is resolved or overturned by a better court docket.
In keeping with immigration attorneys because the authorized challenges to this government order proceed throughout district courts – together with challenges introduced by 22 state lawyer generals, it’s possible that the matter will lastly be determined by the US Supreme Courtroom.
Nevertheless, ought to the EO sail by means of the query that looms giant for the Indian diaspora is what ought to be the following steps. Mitch Wexler, senior counsel at Fragomen, a world immigration regulation agency explains, “For kids born to oldsters with H-1B, L-1, F-1 or some other lawful, non permanent standing, these households would presumably be required to acquire proof of their baby’s dependent non-immigrant standing (eg, H-4, L-2, F-2 and so on.) by means of an immigration utility.”