A United States Federal District Judge, John C. Coughenour, on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order which puts an end to the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents’ immigration status.
Coughenour gave the ruling in a case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.
The states argued that the 14th Amendment and Supreme Court case law have cemented birthright citizenship in the US.
The case is one of five lawsuits being brought by 22 states and a number of immigrants rights groups across the country.
The order signed by Trump on his Inauguration Day is scheduled to take effect on February 19.
When the orders comes into full effect, it would impact hundreds of thousands of people born in the US.
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.
