Washington DC, (EFE).- The United States Supreme Court announced Thursday that it will hear legal arguments regarding United States President Donald Trump’s attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders.
The hearing is scheduled for May 14, according to a document released this afternoon.
The decision to take up the case comes a little over a month after the Trump administration requested the lifting of several federal court orders that blocked the decree seeking to end the constitutional right.
On his second day in office, Trump signed an executive order targeting the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, which guarantees US citizenship to anyone born on American soil.
The executive action faced immediate legal challenges, resulting in three separate nationwide injunctions issued by federal judges in Maryland, Washington, and Massachusetts.
Facing potentially prolonged litigation, the Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling to partially lift the nationwide blocks while the case proceeds.
“I don’t understand how judges can take that authority away from a president. We’ve done an amazing job,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump questions judicial oversight on immigration
Speaking Thursday at the White House during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Melone, Trump expressed frustration over judicial interference in his immigration policies.
His comments followed a new controversy after federal judge James Boasberg initiated contempt proceedings against the administration.
Boasberg found that the government had violated a court order by deporting more than 200 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, to a high-security prison in El Salvador on Mar. 15.
Trump defended his administration’s immigration measures, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for allowing “millions” of migrants to enter the country “unchecked”, many of whom, Trump claimed, are “killers.”
The former president has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, historically used during wartime, to justify the expulsion of hundreds of Venezuelans.
Authorities accused the deported individuals of ties to the Latin American Tren Aragua criminal gang, though no court has publicly confirmed these allegations.
Deportation error sparks diplomatic tensions
Among the deported migrants was Kilmar Ábrego, a Salvadoran residing legally in Maryland and married to a US citizen.
Despite a judge’s order prohibiting his deportation, Ábrego was sent to El Salvador.
The US Supreme Court later urged the government to facilitate his return, but Trump dismissed responsibility for the case Thursday, directing questions to the Department of Justice.
“I’ve heard a lot about him. We have to find out what’s true,” Trump said, reiterating claims, unproven in court, that Ábrego was a gang member and therefore undeserving of judicial protection.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen on Thursday called on the governments of the United States and El Salvador to carry out due process for Salvadoran Kilmar Ábrego, detained in the mega-prison Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).
The Democrat arrived Wednesday in El Salvador to verify Ábrego’s condition and this Thursday tried unsuccessfully to visit him in the maximum security prison where leaders of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs are incarcerated.
Van Hollen said today in a press conference in San Salvador that Ábrego “has the right to due process” and assured that the Salvadoran “was taken illegally, kidnapped, and brought to El Salvador”.
“He has the right to sit in front of a judge and have due process because if this does not work for him, there will come a time when it will not work for any member of American society,” the senator said. EFE
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