Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s New Birthright Citizenship Order

GREENBELT, UNITED STATES — A Maryland judge has halted enforcement of President Donald Trump’s latest restrictions on birthright citizenship while a constitutional challenge proceeds.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a new executive order that sought to deny automatic U.S. citizenship to some children born in the United States, finding that the policy is likely inconsistent with the Constitution and a recent Supreme Court ruling.

U.S. District Judge Deborah L. Boardman issued a preliminary injunction on September 2 against Executive Order 14418, signed by Trump on August 6. The ruling prevents federal agencies from denying or interfering with citizenship on the basis of the challenged provisions while a class-action lawsuit continues.

The decision does not finally resolve the lawsuit or permanently invalidate the executive order. It preserves the existing citizenship status of people covered by the injunction while the federal courts consider whether the administration’s new categories fit within the narrow constitutional exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court.

Executive Order 14418 directed federal agencies to treat several categories of U.S.-born children as outside the constitutional rule of birthright citizenship. Among them are some children whose parents work for foreign governments and children whose parents are alleged to have engaged in fraud or commercial transactions intended to obtain citizenship, including certain arrangements involving travel to the United States to give birth.

The White House described the measure as an effort to protect U.S. citizenship and combat what the administration calls abuse of the immigration system. A separate executive order signed the same day, Executive Order 14419, directs the State and Homeland Security departments to act against “birth tourism,” defined in part as entry on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth in the United States.

The preliminary injunction at issue, however, concerns the citizenship restrictions in Executive Order 14418 rather than establishing a final judgment on all of the administration’s August 6 immigration measures.

Injunction stops enforcement while the lawsuit continues

For families covered by the case, the immediate effect is that federal agencies cannot use Executive Order 14418 to deny or challenge citizenship while Boardman’s injunction remains in force. The government can continue preparing implementation guidance, but it cannot enforce the disputed citizenship restrictions against the affected class.

The lawsuit is being pursued by immigrant families and organizations including CASA and the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project. The Maryland litigation began in 2025 as a challenge to Trump’s earlier birthright citizenship order and later developed into a class action covering children who could lose recognition of citizenship under the administration’s policies.

The administration argued that the latest challenge was premature because agencies had not yet completed detailed guidance explaining how the August order would be implemented. Boardman rejected that argument in granting preliminary relief.

Supreme Court ruling limits the administration’s legal room

The dispute follows the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara, which held that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are citizens at birth under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The Court said that the constitutional rule historically contained narrow exceptions and reaffirmed United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the 1898 precedent establishing that children born on U.S. soil generally acquire citizenship regardless of their parents’ foreign nationality or temporary presence.

In Barbara, the Court specifically held that children born in the United States to parents who are unlawfully or temporarily present are “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore citizens at birth. The majority traced the constitutional rule to the common-law principle of citizenship by birthplace and described the historical jurisdictional exceptions as limited.

Trump’s August order was drafted after that ruling and asserts that additional categories remain outside the rule recognized by the Supreme Court. The White House maintains that the new policy is consistent with the historical exceptions discussed in Barbara.

The challengers contend that the administration has instead created new exceptions that the Constitution and the Supreme Court’s decision do not permit.

Boardman’s injunction leaves that question for further litigation. The Maryland case remains active, and the administration may seek appellate review of the preliminary order. Until the injunction is lifted, narrowed or reversed, federal agencies are barred from applying the challenged portions of Executive Order 14418 to deny citizenship to people protected by the court’s order.