US judge blocks Trump order limiting birthright citizenship

A federal judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction halting President Donald Trump's latest administrative order restricting birthright citizenship for certain categories of children born in the United States. The order will remain in effect pending the resolution of a class-action lawsuit brought by immigrant families and advocacy groups. US District Judge Deborah Boardman, appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2020, ruled that children in the affected category are US citizens by birth under the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War, grants citizenship to anyone born on US soil with limited exceptions. Trump had previously issued an executive directive to deny automatic citizenship to children of parents in the country illegally or on temporary visas, but courts blocked that initiative. In August, Trump signed a more restrictive order targeting specific categories of US-born children, including those of people his administration has labeled "foreign enemies."