Federal judge seeks clarity on whether birthright citizenship order means babies could be deported

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday questioned when the Trump administration will try to enforce its birthright citizenship executive order and asked if the government would attempt to deport U.S.-born children of people who are in the country illegally or temporarily before restrictions on birthright citizenship might take effect in late July.

Justice Department attorney Brad Rosenberg told U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman that the administration doesn’t intend to deport any children covered by President Donald Trump’s executive while the Supreme Court has suspended its enforcement for 30 days. He called it a “hypothetical” question.

The judge gave Rosenberg until Tuesday to submit a written summary of what the administration believes it “can and can’t do” after last Friday’s Supreme Court ruling. She asked if the government would be “seeking to deport babies” before July 26. The judge said her question referred to children who were born after Feb. 19 and are covered by Trump’s executive order but aren’t plaintiffs in litigation challenging the order.

“No,” Rosenberg said. “I just want to be clear. I am responding to the court’s characterization of what it believes the United States might do after 30 days from the date of the Supreme Court’s decision. But, again, I would note that (federal agencies) have all been tasked with developing guidelines for implementation of the executive order. So I view that as a hypothetical.”

“I take the government at its word that the United States does not intend to do that and it is not doing that,” Boardman said.

Plaintiffs’ attorney William Powell said their clients are experiencing “incredible stress, anxiety and fear” after the Supreme Court’s decision.

“They’re not lawyers. It is confusing to them exactly what these things mean,” Powell told the judge. “We can’t really assure them, ‘Oh, no, the order is fully blocked,’ because it’s not.”

Powell said deportation isn’t the only “irreparable harm” that plaintiffs’ attorneys are concerned about.

“We’re obviously also concerned about other potential ways in which the (executive) order could be enforced to deprive newborns of potential rights,” he said.

Boardman, who sits in Greenbelt, Maryland, isn’t the only district court judge grappling with how to tailor their orders to comply with the Supreme Court decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Judges in Massachusetts and Washington state have issued a a separate orders on birthright citizenship, as has a judge in New Hampshire, though that order applied more narrowly and wasn’t nationwide.

New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, who along with other states and cities brought a case in Massachusetts federal court, said in a letter Monday he was seeking a hearing on whether a nationwide order blocking the president is warranted. Platkin said the nationwide injunction in New Jersey’s case doesn’t run afoul of the Supreme Court’s recent opinion but added the high court offered “alternative forms of relief” while leaving debate over what those could be to lower courts.

The high court’s majority ruled that federal judges lack the authority to grant nationwide injunctions, but the decision left unclear whether Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship could soon take effect in parts of the country.

Birthright citizenship automatically makes anyone born in the United States an American citizen, including children born to mothers in the country illegally. The right was enshrined soon after the Civil War in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The U.S. is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship is applied.

Trump and his supporters have argued that there should be tougher standards for becoming an American citizen.

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Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Mike Catalini contributed to this report.