Setback again! Appeals court blocks Trump's move against birthright citizenship

Washington: A US appeals court refused to allow President Trump’s move to end birthright citizenship for certain children of immigrants, serving as a setback to the Republican administration. The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday declined an emergency Justice Department request to set aside a Seatle’s judge’s ruling blocking Trump’s implementation of the move via an executive order, CNN reported.

However, the 9th Circuit panel, constituting a Trump appointee, a Jimmy Carter appointee and a George W. Bush appointee, said that it will move a closer review of the matter in its court while arguments are posted for June.

CNN reports that the case before the San Francisco-based appeals court was one of the major legal challenges to Trump's policy and was the first to get weighed in by an appellate panel.

The Justice Department had argued that the birthright citizenship executive order was “an integral part of President Trump’s broader effort to repair the United States’ immigration system and to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border.”

Under an 1868 constitutional amendment and statute before that, citizenship was granted to anyone born on US soil, irrespective of the immigration status of their parents.

It was after the Democratic attorneys general of four states, led by Washinton, filed a lawsuit the 9th Circuit case commenced. They wrote that this is not a case about immigration but citizenship rights that the Fourteenth Amendment and federal statute intentionally and explicitly place beyond the President’s authority to condition or deny.

A federal judge in Seattle issuing an indefinite block on Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship was a significant legal victory for Indian students and professionals residing in the United States on temporary visas.