SAVANNAH, Ga. () – On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision that restricts judges’ authority to halt an executive order involving the suspension of birthright citizenship.
A few months prior, President Trump enacted an executive order stipulating that a child born to parents deemed as “unlawfully present” or holding a status that is “lawful but temporary” would not receive citizenship at birth.
In the case of Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court did not decide whether the president possesses the power to suspend automatic citizenship for those born in the United States.
“Whether this executive order is unconstitutional, this issue has not yet been resolved,” Main attorney & owner of Siletskaya Immigration Firm Khristina Siletskaya said.
Instead, they ruled 6-3 that birthright citizenship was not the issue at hand.
“When the president issued that executive order, three courts said, ‘Mr. President, you overstepped your bounds, and we will issue what’s call an injunction, and that injunction will apply to the entire United States,'” Mills Fleming, a partner at Hunter Maclean, said.
The nationwide injunctions from federal judges prompted questions about judicial overreach.
“The U.S. Supreme court looked solely at that issue and determined that that federal judge did not have the authority to issue a nationwide injunction,” Fleming said.
Therefore, the injunction on Trump’s birthright citizenship order only stands in the states where one was issued.
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“As of this very moment, technically the executive order can take effect in all other states, including South Carolina and Georgia,” Siletskaya said. “It might be and most likely will happen that within the next few days, we will see new legal actions, new court orders.”
Though, there won’t be much time to litigate the issue before the order could go into effect.
“The order is not going to go into effect for 30 days. So, there’s 30 days for this to be fought out, and then we’ll see what happens,” Owner of Dobson Law LLC Craig Dobson said.
If Trump’s order does go into effect, there are still many unanswered questions about how it would play out.
“What are you going to do with somebody undocumented in the hospital, they have a child. Are the ICE agents going to show up and take that child and kick them out of the United States?” Fleming questioned.
Citizenship that has already granted cannot be revoked.
However, if Trump’s order goes into effect in the states that have not ruled on it, it would apply to any newborn that does not have at least one parent with legal status.
“There’s a very vulnerable and very particular group of people that are all in legal status. Yet, they are not green card holders. They are on the path to become green card holders, but not yet. So, if they have a child, what does this mean for this child?” Siletskaya asked.
