First judicial setback to Donald Trump’s decrees. A federal district judge has temporarily blocked this Thursday the executive order with which the president denies US nationality to the children of undocumented migrants. The measure, which the judge considers “impossible to understand,” was one of the first adopted by the Republican after his arrival at the White House, when he signed an avalanche of regulations against immigrants. Law experts, since the magnate’s proposal collides with the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which since 1868 has guaranteed citizenship to anyone born in the country regardless of the immigration status of their parents.
Judge John Coughenour has ruled in favor of the States of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, who went en masse to court to appeal the Executive’s proposal, signed by Trump after taking office on January 20. The togado has only spoken out that they have presented themselves against the executive order, which provoked a torrent of appeals promoted by a total of 22 States and which has been supported by several human rights organizations. The first lawsuit was filed just minutes after the signing by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
“This order is blatantly unconstitutional,” Coughenour said at the hearing, held before Justice Department lawyer Brett Shumate, who defended Trump’s vision. The decree is “impossible to understand,” according to the judge, with more than four decades in justice since he was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan. The man told the lawyer that he could not remember another measure in his career that was so clearly unconstitutional.
The judge’s order will remain in place for two weeks. This prevents the controversial measure from coming into force, which cannot be applied retroactively. “The privilege of citizenship does not automatically extend to those born in the United States when their mother is illegally in the country and/or the father is not a United States citizen,” the text of the executive order indicates. This also denies the right to children of parents who are protected by a temporary work, education or tourism visa.
The Justice Department argued on Wednesday that the States did not have sufficient grounds to represent themselves as victims in the process. This is despite the fact that many of the demands were accompanied by names and testimonies of pregnant women whose children may be affected by the measure, which was to come into force on February 19.
Coughenour’s decision is the first in what is expected to be a long judicial war between the Executive and its opponents. The Seattle judge’s order begins the transition of the executive order between appeals and resources on its way to the Supreme Court, where it could reach after several months of conflict. The Trumpist environment hopes that one of the conservative judges who came to the Supreme Court during Trump’s first presidency will break with their opinion, some 150 years of tradition, and decide in favor of denying the right to citizenship to the children of undocumented immigrants.
In 2022, some 255,000 babies were born in the country to undocumented mothers. This represents 7% of all births that year. When Trump signed, he assured the cameras that his country was “the only one in the world” that maintained the principle of right alone the right to land, something that had to be ended. The data is incorrect; There are about 30 nations that maintain it. Among them are the neighboring nations and main partners of the power, Mexico and Canada.
