US judge blocks Trump’s latest bid to restrict birthright citizenship

A federal judge in Maryland has blocked US President Donald Trump's latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, issuing a preliminary injunction against an executive order that the administration said was aimed at curbing 'birth tourism'.

US district judge Deborah L. Boardman on Wednesday, 2 September issued the injunction until a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant families and advocacy groups is resolved. 'The Supreme Court has spoken: Children in the certified class are citizens at birth,' Boardman, a Biden appointee, wrote in her ruling.

Birthright citizenship is guaranteed under current US law to anyone born on American soil, with limited exceptions. The principle dates to 1868, when the 14th Amendment was ratified after the Civil War.

Trump has long sought to end birthright citizenship. His earlier executive order sought to deny citizenship to children born to people who were in the US illegally or temporarily, but the Supreme Court struck down that attempt in June.

In August, Trump issued a narrower order that sought to restrict automatic citizenship for specific categories of children, including those born to adults with links to foreign embassies or organisations, or to people considered an 'alien enemy' of the US.

The order defined 'birth tourism' as entering the US on a 'nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil'. Birth tourism is already considered visa fraud and can be grounds for restricting a visa when a person seeks entry specifically to obtain US citizenship for a child.

The latest order sought to deny citizenship to children born to adults who 'engaged in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship'. Some families said they feared the provision could be interpreted broadly, including in cases where parents had simply bought airfare to the US and conceived a child after arriving.

The families and organisations challenging the order argued that the executive branch had adopted an expansive interpretation of who could be classified as an 'alien enemy', at times relying on speculation or misinformation.

Some parents also said they feared their children could be denied citizenship because an extended family member was linked to a gang in their home country, even though the parents themselves had no such connection.

The uncertainty surrounding the order had left the families confused and fearful, they told the court. They were joined in the lawsuit by We Are CASA, the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project and the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

The administration's lawyers argued that blocking the order was premature, saying the federal agencies responsible for enforcing it would take 'appropriate measures' based on official guidance that had yet to be issued.

Boardman rejected the argument. 'No matter what the guidance says, the 2026 Executive Order commands agencies to deny citizenship documents to several broad categories of children,' she wrote.

Shana Khader, legal director at We Are CASA, welcomed the ruling, saying the administration would not succeed in stripping children of their citizenship rights or placing the president's "anti-immigrant agenda" above the Constitution.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With AP/PTI inputs