GREENBELT, Md. >> A U.S. District Court judge in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday that indefinitely blocked President Donald Trump’s attempt to unilaterally eliminate automatic U.S. citizenship for children born to unauthorized immigrants on U.S. soil.

The nationwide injunction, issued by Judge Deborah L. Boardman, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, is more permanent than the 14-day temporary restraining order issued on Jan. 23 by a federal judge in Seattle, in a different case concerning the same Trump administration executive order. In most instances, a preliminary injunction remains in force until a case is resolved or a higher court overturns it.

“The executive order conflicts with the plain language of the 14th Amendment, contradicts 125-year-old binding Supreme Court precedent and runs counter to our nation’s 250-year history of citizenship by birth,” Boardman ruled. “The United States Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected the president’s interpretation of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. In fact, no court in the country has ever endorsed the president’s interpretation. This court will not be the first.”

The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on the Maryland injunction. However, the White House did.

“President Trump was given a resounding mandate to end the disregard and abuse of our immigration laws and to secure our borders,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. “The Trump administration will continue to put Americans and America first.”

Trump said last month that the administration would appeal the Seattle ruling as well.

The case was brought by two nonprofit organizations that work with immigrants and refugees — the Maryland-based CASA and the New York-based Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project — as well as five pregnant women who are living in the country either unlawfully or on temporary visas.

The president’s order, part of Trump’s first-week salvo against immigration, both legal and illegal, declared that children born in the United States to unauthorized immigrants after Feb. 19 would no longer be treated as citizens. The order would also extend beyond immigrants in the country illegally to exclude from citizenship babies born to mothers who are in the country legally but temporarily, such as tourists, university students or temporary workers, if the father is a noncitizen.

Legal precedent has long interpreted the 14th Amendment — that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States” — applies to every baby born in the United States, with a few limited exceptions: children of accredited foreign diplomats; children born to noncitizens on U.S. territory occupied by an invading army; and, for a time, children born to Native Americans on reservations.

The Maryland case is one of nine federal lawsuits challenging the executive order.