US appeals court rules Trump's move to end birthright citizenship likely unconstitutional

By Asiye Latife Yilmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - A federal appeals court on Friday ruled the Trump administration’s attempt to end birthright citizenship is likely unconstitutional.

In a 100‑page ruling, the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Boston court’s injunction blocking the Trump administration’s executive order to narrow birthright citizenship, siding with the plaintiff states.

"Our nation's history of efforts to restrict birthright citizenship — from Dred Scott in the decade before the Civil War to the attempted justification for the enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act in Wong Kim Ark — has not been a proud one," the court's chief justice wrote in the ruling.

"Indeed, those efforts each have been rejected, once by the people through constitutional amendment in 1868 and once by the court relying on the same amendment three decades later, and at a time when tensions over immigration were also high," the court added.

The appeals court concluded that “the lessons of history” caution against ending the long‑held tradition of birthright citizenship.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January, aiming to redefine the interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause and end the automatic granting of citizenship to children born in the US to undocumented or temporary-status immigrants.

Other legal challenges to the president’s bid to curb birthright citizenship are advancing in the courts, and to date, decisions have gone against the administration.