Federal Judge Blocks President Trump's Birth Tourism Order

WASHINGTON — A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to restrict U.S. citizenship for children born in the country as part of birth tourism.

U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman of Maryland — who was appointed by former President Joe Biden — ruled that the order is “almost certainly unconstitutional,” saying it conflicts with a Supreme Court ruling in June that rejected Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship.

“No Presidential Executive Order can undo what the Supreme Court has done,” Boardman wrote.

Trump signed the executive order in August as part of an effort to increase restrictions on visitors who travel to the United States to give birth. The order sought to deny citizenship when a parent participates in a commercial transaction to ensure the child’s mother is in the United States to give birth. It also sought to restrict citizenship for children whose parents are classified as an “alien enemy.”

Two nonprofit organizations that serve immigrants, CASA and Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project Inc., sued the Trump administration, arguing that the order violated the 14th Amendment.

The groups said the order created confusion and fear because it provided little clarity about who would be affected. 

Supporters of Trump's executive order believe entering the country solely to have a child that would then be locked in as a U.S. citizen goes against the original intention of the 14th Amendment. The Amendment was passed in 1868 when it wouldn't have been considered that a pregnant woman who wasn't a citizen could fly into the country to give birth.