Coming as a temporary relief to the Indian community in the US, a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship. The judge called the order “blatantly unconstitutional.”
Judge John Coughenour, in an appeal by four Democratic-led states , issued a temporary restraining order preventing the administration from enforcing the order, which Trump signed on his first day in office. The four states are: Washington state, Arizona, Illinois, and Oregon. They argue that Trump’s action violates the right enshrined in the 14th amendment that says anyone born in the United States is a citizen. The order has already been challenged by civil rights groups and 22 states.
“Under this order, babies being born today don’t count as US citizens,” the Washington state assistant attorney general Lane Polozola told Judge John Coughenour at the start of a hearing in Seattle, The Guardian reported.
Polozola urged the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the administration from carrying out this key element of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Trump in his executive order directed US agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the US if neither their mother nor father is a US citizen or legal permanent resident.
There are lakhs of Indians working in the US on temporary visas currently. Their future children will be among those affected by the new Trump regulation.
