Washington, Jan 24,2025: A federal judge said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a temporary restraining order to block it, media reports said.
Judge John Coughenour, granted the request by Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and three other Democratic-led states for the emergency order halting implementation of the policy for the next 14 days while there are more briefings in the legal challenge, the CNN reported.
According to reports, an attorney for the state of Washington, Lane Polozola told the judge that “births cannot be paused” while the court considers the case.
CNN quoted Polozola saying,’ Babies are being born today here, and in the plaintiff states and around the country, with a cloud cast over their citizenship.’
Children denied citizenship under Trump’s order will face “longterm substantial negative impacts,” he added.
Polozola also argued that the Trump administration not only ignored those harms in the filings it has submitted so far in the dispute, but that harm “appears to be the purpose” of the executive order.
Beyond the impact that Trump’s order will have on their residents, Washington and the other states are arguing that the end of birthright citizenship will burden their state programs financially and logistically, as those children are shut off from federal benefits that they would be entitled to as citizens.
The Trump administration is arguing that that clause “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” allows the president to exclude the children of undocumented immigrants and even children whose parents are lawfully present but lack permanent legal status.
