SEATTLE: A federal judge who already questioned the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order is set to hear arguments Thursday over a longer-term pause of the directive, which aims to end citizenship for children born to parents not legally in the country.
US District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle has scheduled a hearing involving lawyers from the Trump administration, four states suing to stop the order, and an immigrant rights organization, which is challenging it on behalf of a proposed class of expectant parents.
The latest proceeding comes just a day after a Maryland federal judge issued a nationwide pause in a separate but similar case involving immigrants’ rights groups and pregnant women whose soon-to-born children could be affected.
Here’s a closer look at where things stand on the president’s birthright citizenship order.
Where do things stand on birthright citizenship?
The president’s executive order seeks to end the automatic grant of citizenship to children born on US soil to parents who are in the country illegally or who are here on a temporary, but lawful, basis such as those on student or tourist visas.
For now, though, it’s on hold. Two weeks ago, Coughenour called the order “blatantly unconstitutional” and issued a 14-day temporary restraining order blocking its implementation. On Wednesday, US District Judge Deborah Boardman followed that up with an injunction keeping it on hold long-term, until the merits of the case are resolved, barring a successful appeal by the Trump administration.
Asked by Boardman if the administration would appeal, an attorney for the administration said he didn’t immediately have the authority to make that decision.
What’s happening in the latest case?
On Thursday, the birthright citizenship issue is back before Coughenour, a Ronald Reagan appointee. During a hearing last month, he said the case stood out in his more than four decades as a federal judge. “I can’t remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is,” he told a Justice Department attorney.
His temporary order blocking the executive action was set to expire Thursday when he’ll hear arguments over whether he should issue an injunction similar to the one issued by the judge in Maryland.
What about the other cases challenging the president’s order?
In total, 22 states, as well as other organizations, have sued to try to stop the executive action.
The matter before the Seattle judge Thursday involves four states: Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington. It also has been consolidated with a lawsuit brought by the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Eighteen states, led by Iowa, have filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief supporting the Trump administration’s position in the case.
Yet another hearing is set for Friday in a Massachusetts court. That case involves a different group of 18 states challenging the order, including New Jersey, which is the lead plaintiff.
What’s at issue here?
At the heart of the lawsuits is the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1868 after the Civil War and the infamous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, which held Scott, an enslaved man, wasn’t a citizen despite having lived in a state where slavery was outlawed.
The plaintiffs argue the amendment, which holds that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” are indisputably citizens.
The Trump administration has asserted that children of noncitizens are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States and therefore not entitled to citizenship.
“The Constitution does not harbor a windfall clause granting American citizenship to ... the children of those who have circumvented (or outright defied) federal immigration laws,” the government argued in reply to the Maryland plaintiffs’ suit.
Attorneys for the states have argued that it certainly does — and that has been recognized since the amendment’s adoption, notably in an 1898 US Supreme Court decision. That decision, United States v. Wong Kim Ark, held that the only children who did not automatically receive US citizenship upon being born on US soil were children of diplomats, who have allegiance to another government; enemies present in the US during hostile occupation; those born on foreign ships; and those born to members of sovereign Native American tribes.
The US is among about 30 countries where birthright citizenship — the principle of jus soli or “right of the soil” — is applied. Most are in the Americas, and Canada and Mexico are among them.
What to know about the court cases over President Trump’s birthright citizenship order
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What to know about the court cases over President Trump’s birthright citizenship order
- Trump’s executive order aims to end citizenship for children born to parents not legally in the country
From sahoor drums to online apps: Ramadan through the eyes of 3 generations of a Pakistani family
- Digital age has significantly altered how holy month is observed, offering spiritual engagement through apps, social media, and online platforms
- Mobile apps have become indispensable tools for Muslims worldwide during Ramadan, whether to check prayer timings or order food
ISLAMABAD: The clatter of plates, spoons, and forks filled the air as Mahmood Ahmed Hashmi, 67, broke his fast earlier this week at his home in Islamabad, seated with his three sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren around a large, colorful tablecloth spread on the floor.
Ramadan traditions and practices evolve across generations, influenced by changing demographics, lifestyles, media and digital apps, while retaining the core spiritual elements of fasting, prayer, and charity.
As in other parts of the world, the digital age has also significantly altered how Ramadan is observed by Pakistani families, offering new avenues for spiritual engagement, community connection, and resource access through apps, social media, and online platforms.
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Digital age has significantly altered how holy month is observed, offering spiritual engagement through apps, social media, and online platforms.
Hashmi, a retired civil servant, detailed how Ramadan has changed through the generations of his family, beginning with the tradition of Ramadan drummers walking through the streets, beating drums to wake people for the pre-dawn meal (sahoor) before fasting began for the day. Once a typical feature of the holy month, the tradition’s usefulness has been eclipsed by TV, mobile phones, and alarm clocks.
“In those days, the elders used to come out in the neighborhood to wake up people for sahoor,” Hashmi told Arab News at iftar. “They used to do some drumming and other things so that people could get up, but now you have everything in your cell phone.”
Mobile apps have become indispensable tools for Muslims around the world during Ramadan, offering features such as prayer time reminders, Qur’anic recitations, and fasting trackers, ensuring accurate timing and accessibility.
While many people used to visit neighborhood or community religious gatherings earlier, now platforms such as YouTube and TikTok host Islamic scholars and influencers who share daily Ramadan reflections, Qur’anic tafseer (exegesis), and tips for spiritual growth, making Islamic education more accessible, especially for younger Muslims.
Social media platforms have also become main avenues for sharing Ramadan greetings, exchanging recipes, and discussing spiritual reflections.
Handwritten Eid cards, once widely exchanged among friends and relatives ahead of the post-Ramadan Eid Al-Fitr festival, are now a rarity in the age of digital greeting cards shared on Whatsapp and other messaging platforms, Hashmi lamented.
“How good the feeling used to be to get Eid cards from your loved ones,” he said. “Your near and loved ones used to wait for them. People used to display them in their drawing rooms or bedrooms. Now a picture (card) will come (on mobile phone).”
Iftar and sahoor meals would also be made entirely at home, or with snacks and food bought from neighborhood eateries, and would be consumed as a family, while food was now increasingly ordered from online apps as per individual choices, Hashmi added.
While the retired official regrets the decline in many of the Ramadan customs of his youth, his son Miraj Mustafa Hashmi, a professor at the National University of Sciences and Technology, said digital innovations such as mobile apps have streamlined everyday rituals, while still nurturing cherished Ramadan traditions.
“Apps like FoodPanda have replaced traditional market trips for iftar (items),” Miraj said, explaining that this was beneficial for people who did not have the luxury of time due to jobs and other responsibilities.
“It is a digital era, things are going on like that and people are comfortable in it. I think it is a very positive change … because people like us have to stay in the office all day and work … Obviously, we want to go to the market but the pressure of work and the load is there.”
Digital platforms and apps have also made it easier for people to donate to charity and support those in need, a core aspect of the holy month, Miraj said.
For his 10-year-old son Ibrahim, a student who began fasting at the age of 7, Ramadan is about being able to order his favorite dishes online and checking the internet for iftar and sahoor timings.
“I love having noodles, pizza, macaroni, samosas, pakoras, and jalebis for iftar,” Ibrahim said.
But was there anything Miraj missed about the way Ramadan used to be observed?
Relatives and friends used to meet each other more often at Ramadan events when they did not have the luxury to connect through video calls, he said.
“When I think of my childhood, we used to go to social events, we used to go shopping with our grandparents, we used to do all these activities.
“If we see, our parents spent a very tough life due to limited facilities, but they made it a little easier (for us) and our children are living a much easier life and technology is helpful.”
Pope Francis will be released from the hospital on Sunday, doctors say
- Gemelli medical director Dr. Sergio Alfieri said Saturday that Francis will require at least two months of rest and rehabilitation
- Pope Francis ‘ doctors provided their first in-person update on the pontiff’s condition in a month
ROME: Pope Francis will be released from the hospital on Sunday, after 38 days battling a life-threatening case of pneumonia in both lungs, his doctors said.
Gemelli medical director Dr. Sergio Alfieri said Saturday that Francis will require at least two months of rest and rehabilitation as he continues recovering back at the Vatican.
Francis was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened. He later developed a life-threatening case of pneumonia.
Pope Francis ‘ doctors provided their first in-person update on the pontiff’s condition in a month, in a sign that he has made good and steady progress in his battle against double pneumonia.
The Saturday evening briefing is the first since Feb. 21, a week after the 88-year-old Francis was brought to Gemelli hospital. He subsequently experienced several respiratory crises that landed him in critical condition, though he has since stabilized.
In another development, the Vatican announced that Francis would appear on Sunday morning to bless faithful from his 10th floor suite at the hospital. While Francis released an audio message on March 6 and the Vatican distributed a photo of him March 16, Sunday’s blessing will be the first live appearance since Francis was admitted on Feb. 14 for what has become the longest hospitalization of his 12-year papacy.
The Argentine pope, who has chronic lung disease, is prone to respiratory problems in winter and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted after a bout of bronchitis worsened.
Doctors first diagnosed a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and soon thereafter, pneumonia in both lungs. Blood tests showed signs of anemia, low blood platelets and the onset of kidney failure, all of which later resolved after two blood transfusions.
The most serious setbacks began on Feb. 28, when Francis experienced an acute coughing fit and inhaled vomit, requiring he use a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe. He suffered two more respiratory crises in the following days, which required doctors manually aspirate the mucus, at which point he began sleeping with the ventilation mask at night to help his lungs clear the accumulation of fluids.
At no point did he lose consciousness, and doctors reported he was alert and cooperative.
Over the past two weeks, he has stabilized and registered slight improvements, the Vatican press office has reported. He no longer needs to wear the ventilation mask at night, and is cutting back his reliance on high flows of supplemental oxygen during the day.
UK government considering offshore ‘migrant hubs’ for failed asylum seekers
- Potential partner nations include Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia
LONDON: The UK government is exploring the possibility of sending failed asylum seekers, including small boat arrivals, to overseas “migrant hubs,” Sky News reported on Saturday.
A Home Office source told political correspondent Amanda Akass that discussions were in the “very early stages,” with ministers closely examining Italy’s agreement with Albania, where two facilities process asylum seekers offshore.
Government sources also told The Times that potential partner nations include Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and North Macedonia, though officials have not confirmed which countries are under consideration.
“They don’t want to pre-empt any discussions which haven’t even officially begun yet,” according to the report.
The move follows a surge in Channel crossings, with 246 people arriving on Friday and 341 on Thursday, pushing the year’s total past 5,000 — the earliest in the year this milestone has been reached since records began in 2018.
The ruling Labour Party’s offshore processing plan is expected to differ from the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda scheme, which aimed to deport all illegal arrivals but was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court in 2023.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp of the opposition Conservative Party criticized the plan, calling it an admission of failure.
“This is Labour admitting they made a catastrophic mistake in canceling the Rwanda scheme before it even started. The fact they are now looking at offshore processing shows they were wrong to cancel Rwanda before it even started and shows their attempts to ‘smash the gangs’ have failed,” he said.
“In fact, illegal immigrants crossing the channel are up 28 percent since the election and this year has been the worst ever. Labour has lost control of our borders. They should urgently start the Rwanda removals scheme,” he added.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, meanwhile, welcomed the end of the Rwanda scheme but urged faster asylum processing, describing the number of people crossing the Channel so far this year as “really worrying.”
He added: “I’m actually glad that the government scrapped the Rwanda scheme because it wasn’t working as a deterrent. If they’ve got a better scheme that will work, we’ll look at that.”
He added that the previous scheme was ineffective as well as costing huge amounts of money.
“But they’ve also got to do quite a few other things. There’s too many hotels that are being used because people aren’t being processed quickly enough, and Liberal Democrats have argued for a long time that if you process people, you give them the right to work so they can actually contribute. That’s the way you could save a lot of money, and I think taxpayers would support that,” he said.
The UK recently signed an agreement with France to strengthen cooperation against people smuggling, while the government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill continues its passage through Parliament.
The Home Office was contacted for further comment but has so far failed to respond.
Venezuela agrees to again accept US deportation flights
- Washington deported 238 Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang
- “We have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with a first flight tomorrow,” Venezuelan top negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said
CARACAS: Venezuela announced Saturday it had reached an agreement with Washington to accept additional deportation flights from the United States, one week after more than 200 Venezuelans accused of being gang members were sent to El Salvador.
The flights were suspended last month when US President Donald Trump claimed Venezuela had not lived up to its promises, and Caracas subsequently said it would no longer accept the flights.
But then Washington deported 238 Venezuelans accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump has designated a foreign terrorist organization, to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, a move deeply criticized by Caracas.
“In order to ensure the return of our countrymen with the protection of their human rights, we have agreed with the US government to resume the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants with a first flight tomorrow,” Venezuelan top negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said in a statement.
“Migrating is not a crime, and we will not rest until all those who want to return are home, and until we rescue our brothers kidnapped in El Salvador,” said Rodriguez, who is also the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly.
Sunday’s trip will be the fifth flight of migrants arriving in Venezuela since Trump took office in January. Since February, about 900 Venezuelans have been repatriated, most from the United States and some from Mexico.
Last month, Trump revoked permission for oil giant Chevron to operate in Venezuela — a blow to Caracas’s wobbly economy. The Republican president said Maduro had failed to accept deported migrants “at the rapid pace” they agreed to.
The countries broke off diplomatic relations in 2019, during Trump’s first term, after Washington recognized then-opposition leader Juan Guaido as “interim president” following 2018 elections widely rejected as neither free nor fair.
Maduro nevertheless maintained his grip on power, and Joe Biden’s administration relaxed sanctions on Venezuelan oil as part of a deal for American prisoners and a promise to hold free elections. Those promised reforms never came.
Washington did not recognize Maduro’s 2024 reelection win.
There had been glimmers of hope for the relationship at the start of Trump’s new term, with US envoys in Caracas for talks.
Then Trump invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act to target Tren de Aragua, and sparked anger by reaching a deal with Salvadoran leader Nayib Bukele to use the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) outside San Salvador.
And on Friday, the United States said it was revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, including from Venezuela, who had been granted entry under a plan launched by Biden in 2022.
They now have 30 days to leave the country.
Trump has pledged to carry out the largest deportation campaign in US history and curb immigration, mainly from Latin American nations.
More than seven million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela over the last decade as their country’s oil-rich economy implodes under Maduro.
Family seeks India’s help after scholar detained in US over alleged Gaza support
- Badar Khan Suri is a fellow at Georgetown University, specializing in peace studies
- District court barred US administration from deporting him over political views
NEW DELHI: The family of an Indian scholar at Georgetown University is calling for New Delhi’s intervention after US agents detained him for deportation earlier this week despite a court order against the move.
Badar Khan Suri is an Indian national and a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Washington, where he is studying and teaching on a student visa.
He was detained by Department of Homeland Security agents outside his home in northern Virginia on Monday.
A DHS assistant secretary said on X that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior adviser to Hamas,” and that his presence in the US rendered him “deportable.”
Suri is married to a Gazan woman whose father was a political adviser to Palestine’s former prime minister.
“His wife is from Palestine and his father-in-law is a supporter of Gaza and the Palestinian cause. This is the allegation against my son, and for this he has been arrested,” Suri’s father, Shamshad Ali Khan, told Arab News.
“The Indian government should intervene and ensure justice for him. My son has not committed any crime ... Is it a crime to talk about Palestine or get married to a Palestinian?”
Suri’s legal team and Georgetown’s administration have repeatedly denied the DHS claims on mainstream international TV channels, and on Thursday a US district judge in Virginia blocked the US administration’s attempt to deport him.
As of Saturday, he was still in detention.
Suri completed his Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, and was invited to become a fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed bin Talal Center, a part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.
“My son has not committed any crime if he has spoken out for the helpless people of Palestine ... As a researcher in peace and conflict studies, it is his duty to talk about it and provide insight,” Khan said.
“I am proud of my son because he is a lecturer at Georgetown University. He is a brilliant student and scholar ... At the university, people are protesting in favor of my son. The students at the university, the faculty of the university, and even the court are in favor of my son.”
Suri’s father is in contact with his daughter-in-law, who has been seeking assistance of the Indian Embassy in the US.
“My daughter-in-law informed me that she has reached out to the Indian Embassy,” he said.
“I request the Indian government to come forward to help him. The Indian embassy in Washington should come forward and help my son.”
But India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters on Friday that knew about the detention only from the media and said that “when it comes to visa and immigration policy, it is something that lies within the sovereign functions of a country.”
However, top lawyers say that the government has a series of obligations it must fulfill.
“India is obliged, as all nations are, to protect its citizens anywhere in the world, so India must lodge a protest to the US, provide consular services to Mr. Suri and publicly mention that his detention is illegal,” Dushyant Dave, former Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate, told Arab News.
According to another Supreme Court lawyer, Anas Tanveer, even if immigration policy is a sovereign function of the US, it is the duty of the embassy to act.
“The person there is not an illegal immigrant. He is on a scholarship, he is on a valid visa, and unless his conditions of admission and unemployment prohibit him (from expressing dissent) — and I don’t think it is possible in the US — he was very well within his rights,” he said.
“India must provide diplomatic access; India must provide legal help. The embassy must provide that. You can’t remain silent ... These are the principles of the Vienna Convention that every nation is a signatory to.”
