4th Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Order To End Birthright Citizenship

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants, marking the fourth time the policy was blocked by a judge.

In a 31-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin stated that two lawsuits—one filed by 18 states and the District of Columbia and the other by nonprofit organizations—are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims that implementing the order would cause irreparable harm. The plaintiffs have argued that the order violates the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment.

“The record before the court establishes that children born without a recognized or lawful status face barriers to accessing critical health care, among other services, along with the threat of removal to countries they have never lived in and possible family separation. That is irreparable harm,” Sorokin stated.

“It is difficult to imagine a government or public interest that could outweigh the harms established by the plaintiffs here.”

Sorokin said that the Trump administration appeared to have “no legitimate interest” in enforcing the order and said it did not demonstrate how continuing birthright citizenship would harm the public.

According to the ruling, the administration’s stance that birthright citizenship requires the mutual consent of both the individual and the nation would disregard the 14th Amendment’s original purpose, which was “to recognize as birthright citizens the children of enslaved persons who did not enter the country consensually, but were brought to our shores in chains.”

“Simply put, the Amendment is the Nation’s consent to accept and protect as citizens those born here, subject to the few narrow exceptions recognized at the time of enactment, none of which are at issue here,” Sorokin stated.

“The Fourteenth Amendment says nothing of the birthright citizen’s parents, and efforts to import such considerations at the time of enactment and when the Supreme Court construed the text were rejected. This Court is likewise bound to reject such theories now.”

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, along with 13 other attorneys general, issued a joint statement welcoming the ruling, stating that it showed the president is not in the position to “rewrite the Constitution.”

Lawyers for Civil Rights, representing the nonprofit organizations and an expectant mother whose children would be affected by Trump’s order, said the plaintiffs are gratified by the court’s decision.

“Birthright citizenship is a sacred right granted by our Constitution,” Oren Sellstrom, litigation director for Lawyers for Civil Rights, said in a statement.

Trump’s order on birthright citizenship, issued on Jan. 20, stated that the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause does not extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.

According to the executive order, the citizenship clause has “always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof’.”

The phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the clause excludes an individual if that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the country and the individual’s father was not a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of his or her birth, Trump’s order states.

The order also states that U.S. citizenship does not apply to an individual whose father was neither a citizen nor a lawful permanent resident at the time of their birth, and whose mother’s presence in the country was lawful but temporary at the time of their birth.

At least nine lawsuits have been filed challenging the new policy, which was initially slated to take effect on Feb. 19. Federal judges in New Hampshire, Washington, and Maryland have also issued preliminary injunctions preventing the Trump administration from denying birthright citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants.

The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.