A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end automatic birthright citizenship in the US. The order, deemed “blatantly unconstitutional” by US District Judge John Coughenour, would have impacted thousands of children born to undocumented parents.

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• Judge John Coughenour issued a temporary restraining order against Trump’s executive order.
• The order aimed to deny citizenship to children born in the US if neither parent is a US citizen or lawful permanent resident.
• Four Democratic-led states—Washington, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon—challenged the order in court.
• The judge criticized the order as unconstitutional, calling it one of the clearest legal violations he had seen in his career.
• The policy, set to take effect on February 19, could have impacted hundreds of thousands of births annually.
• In 2022, 2,55,000 children were born to undocumented mothers, with 1,53,000 having both parents undocumented.
• Birthright citizenship, based on the principle of “right of the soil,” applies in around 30 countries, including the US.
• Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, personally impacted by birthright citizenship, called the lawsuit significant.
• The legal challenge underscores the broad implications of the policy on immigrant families in the US.