A federal judge in Boston heard arguments on Friday in a case brought by 18 states seeking to stop President Trump from ending the long practice of granting citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
Judge Leo T. Sorokin of U.S. District Court said he did not expect to issue an immediate ruling.
The executive order to abolish birthright citizenship, which was among the first orders issued by Mr. Trump upon taking office, is the subject of multiple lawsuits around the country. It has already been blocked indefinitely by a federal judge in Maryland, who issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday. Another judge issued a similar injunction on Thursday in Seattle.
The hearing in Boston concerned two separate but similar lawsuits, one brought by the 18 states, the District of Columbia and the City of San Francisco, and the other on behalf of an expectant mother by Lawyers for Civil Rights, an advocacy group based in Boston.
Eric Hamilton, a Justice Department lawyer, argued at the hearing that the authors of the 14th Amendment sought only to stamp out denial of citizenship based on race, and “did not intend to create a loophole to be exploited.”
Lawyers for the Trump administration also asserted that the states do not have standing to bring the case because they would not be directly harmed by the order. The suit argues that the states would lose millions of dollars in Medicaid funds if children born to undocumented immigrants were no longer citizens who qualify for federal health care.
Under questioning from Judge Sorokin, Mr. Hamilton acknowledged that the unnamed pregnant plaintiff in the second suit, known as Doe v. Trump, would suffer direct harm under the president’s order. Judge Sorokin was appointed by President Barack Obama.
The executive order declared that children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants after Feb. 19 would not be treated as citizens. The order also covers children born to women from other countries who are here legally but temporarily, such as tourists or seasonal workers with short-term visas.
In a news conference in Boston before the hearing, Andrea Joy Campbell, the Massachusetts attorney general, called birthright citizenship a “century-old promise made to American-born babies” and “a promise of equality born out of a collective fight against oppression, against slavery.”
“Newborn babies are not criminals, and they do not deserve to be punished solely because of their parents’ immigration status,” she said.
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