A judge says he will block Donald Trump’s executive order.
Jim WATSON / AFP
A federal judge in Seattle temporarily halted President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order denying automatic citizenship for anyone born on US soil, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”
“I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar could state unequivocally that is a constitutional order,” the judge told the Trump administration’s attorney after hearing arguments Thursday morning, according to multiple news outlets in the courtroom. “It boggles my mind.”
The ruling was the first in a series of challenges to Trump’s birthright citizenship order that were filed this week.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.
On Tuesday, attorneys general from 22 states sued Trump in two separate suits to block the order, which would not classify children born in the US to immigrant parents living in the US illegally as citizens. They were joined by law enforcement officers from San Francisco and Washington, DC. A hearing has not been held yet in the first 18-state suit.
Birthright citizenship is a policy that automatically gives citizenship to anyone born in the US or US territories. The executive order would have stopped federal agencies from issuing any documents granting citizenship to US-born children whose parents live in the country illegally, or cases in which the mother was lawfully in the country temporarily — such as a student or tourist — but the father is neither a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
The lawsuit alleged the policy is a “flagrantly unlawful attempt to strip hundreds of thousands American-born children of their citizenship based on their parentage.” The lawsuit further argued ending the policy is “a policy tactic to purportedly deter immigration to the United States.”
Trump signed the executive order on Monday alongside about a dozen immigration-oriented orders. The order, which he deemed “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” would have gone into effect 30 days later.
The ACLU also brought a lawsuit on Monday that said at least 150,000 children would be affected.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
