US birthright citizenship: Supreme Court agrees to decide legality of order

Washington: The US Supreme Court agreed to decide the legality of President Donald Trump’s executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship, which has been treated as settled law for more than a century.

After taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to halt recognition of citizenship for children born after February 19, if neither parent is a US citizen nor a permanent resident, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Trump administration has argued that the constitution does not grant citizenship to the children of “temporary visitors or illegal aliens,” because such parents are supposedly not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States in the constitutional sense.

Soon after the executive order was issued, multiple lawsuits were filed challenging it. Several federal judges have temporarily blocked the order.

On June 27, in a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court held that federal district courts lack authority to issue broad nationwide or universal injunctions blocking the implementation of the executive order.

By taking up the appeal on Friday, the Supreme Court is choosing to address the controversy head-on.

The administration argues that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to automatic citizenship. Twenty-four Republican-led states and 27 GOP lawmakers, including Senator Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, have urged the court to uphold the policy.

This is one of the multiple challenges to Trump’s immigration policies in which the Supreme Court has been asked to intervene.