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President Donald Trump will appeal a federal judge’s ruling on Thursday to block his executive order against birthright citizenship.
U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour ruled in the case from multiple states which argued that the 14th Amendment and case law support the controversial citizenship action.
The order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” was signed on Trump’s first day in office on Monday.
“The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” the order reads.
Trump argued that “the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”
It specifies that individuals born to parents who are illegal immigrants or those in the country legally on temporary non-immigrant visas do not acquire citizenship by birthright.
The ban was set to go into effect on Feb. 19, impacting hundreds of thousands of children born in the U.S. each year.
“In 2022, there were about 255,000 births of citizen children to mothers living in the country illegally and about 153,000 births to two such parents, according to the four-state suit filed in Seattle,” the Associated Press reported.
The legal battle is expected to continue, but the order will remain on hold for now. The move is one of several border-related executive orders Trump signed on Monday in his effort to stop what he calls an “invasion” of America by illegal immigrants.
The state of emergency declared by Trump grants the Defense Department authority to deploy military personnel and the National Guard to the border. According to the executive order, the troops’ role would be to assist the Department of Homeland Security with logistical support, such as securing detention facilities and transporting migrants.
Trump’s orders also ended the use of the Biden administration’s CBP One app, a tool used by immigrants to apply for asylum in the United States. Tens of thousands of current appointments were also canceled as part of the app’s shutdown.