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A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s executive order denying U.S. citizenship to children born in the country to unauthorized immigrants, dealing a blow to curbing immigration that is a top priority of his second term in office.
A U.S. District Judge in Washington state, John Coughenor, called the policy “clearly unconstitutional” on Thursday, as he ordered a temporary injunction to suspend the president’s ban, according to media reports.
The decision stems from a lawsuit filed Tuesday by four Democratic state attorneys-general, led by Washington state — one of several legal challenges quickly mounted against the order. Trump He signed on Monday hours after being sworn in as president.
Coffin’s decision is the first legal setback for the Trump administration just three days after returning to the White House. The wave of executive orders the president has signed has focused on many of them immigration — kicking off what was set to be a gruesome and drawn-out legal battle.
Other Democratic state attorneys-general as well as civil rights groups filed separate lawsuits this week seeking to overturn the birthright ban, alleging similar violations of the Fourteenth Amendment, which states that all “persons born or naturalized in the United States . . . are citizens of the United States.” “
The Washington attorney-general’s office said: “If allowed to stand, the unconstitutional and un-American order would deprive thousands of Washington infants and children of their ability to participate fully and fairly in American society as citizens, despite the Constitution’s guarantees.” about their citizenship.”
Oregon, Arizona and Illinois have joined the suit.
Trump’s order instead argued that the Fourteenth Amendment “does not universally extend citizenship to everyone born” in the United States.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, it said the cases were part of “left resistance” and the administration would deal with them in court.
The Justice Department said in a filing Wednesday that the order is “an integral part of President Trump’s recent actions, consistent with his significant authority on immigration, to address this nation’s broken immigration system and ongoing crisis.” Southern border“
