Judge Declines to Block Trump’s New Order Narrowing Birthright Citizenship

A federal judge on Aug. 28 declined to block a new order from President Donald Trump that narrows birthright citizenship.

Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court in Maryland said during a hearing that she would not grant a temporary restraining order that immigrant advocacy groups requested against Trump’s new order.

The U.S. Supreme Court in June invalidated an order from Trump that would have barred children of illegal immigrants and people temporarily visiting the United States from obtaining citizenship at birth.

Trump later signed an order that narrowed the list of people who are eligible for birthright citizenship, including babies born to terrorists and children of foreign government employees.

Immigrant advocacy groups, in a brief to Boardman, requested she block Trump’s new order and argued that it was “in defiance” of the Supreme Court’s ruling and is unconstitutional because the Trump administration lacks the power to take away citizenship that the Constitution confers.

Government lawyers said that the new order, unlike the previous one, “is not based on whether the mothers were unlawfully or temporarily present at the time of birth” but rather targets categories based on exceptions to the Constitution’s Citizenship Clause that justices outlined in their decision.

The government interpreted the Supreme Court’s ruling as requiring birthright citizenship for children “born under the protection of” the United States who have a “natural allegiance” to the nation, but excluding children of foreign officials or enemies.

Boardman said on Friday that because the plaintiffs’ original lawsuit did not mention Trump’s 2026 order, she was unable to block it from being implemented at this time.

But she said she would allow the groups to supplement their complaint and set a swift briefing schedule for the plaintiffs to again challenge the order, which “tries to strike out exceptions to birthright citizenship with the stroke of a pen.”

“As far as I can tell, this is unprecedented,” Boardman said.

Another challenged order from Trump bans birth tourism, or traveling to the United States on a tourist visa with the intention of giving birth in the country to obtain birthright citizenship for the child.

In response to government lawyers noting that federal agencies have not even issued guidance detailing how Trump’s order will be implemented, Boardman expressed skepticism about waiting until the guidance is issued and questioned where in the Supreme Court’s ruling “is there any reference to an exception for birthright citizenship for birth tourism?”

Reuters contributed to this report.