US judge to hear states’ bid to block Trump birthright citizenship order

(Reuters)

SEATTLE, Jan 23- Four Democratic-led states will urge a federal judge in Seattle on Thursday to block U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from enforcing the Republican’s executive order curtailing the right to automatic birthright citizenship in the United States.

The executive order has already become the subject of five lawsuits by civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general from 22 states, who call it flagrantly unconstitutional.

Senior U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle is scheduled to hear arguments on a request by Democratic state attorneys general from Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon for a temporary restraining order that would prevent Trump’s administration from carrying out a key component of his immigration crackdown.

That executive order, which Trump signed on Monday after taking office, directs U.S. agencies to refuse to recognize the citizenship of children born in the U.S. if neither their mother nor father is a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.

In a brief filed late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice described the order as an “integral part” of the president’s efforts “to address this nation’s broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border.”

The lawsuit filed in Seattle has been progressing the fastest of the five cases brought over the executive order. It has been assigned to Coughenour, an appointee of Republican former President Ronald Reagan.