The orders come after the Supreme Court struck down the president’s earlier attempt to limit birthright citizenship.
By Natalie Andrews , James Romoser, and, Michelle Hackman
WASHINGTON—President Trump signed a pair of executive orders that he said were aimed at cracking down on birthright citizenship, renewing one of his signature policies after the Supreme Court voided his earlier, broader bid to deny citizenship to many children born on U.S. soil to non-American parents.
The executive orders, which Trump signed in the Oval Office on Thursday, seek to expand the categories of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship and ban tourists from coming to the U.S. solely to give birth.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the first executive order makes babies ineligible for citizenship if their parents are “alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments.”
The order directs the State Department to not issue citizenship documents for babies born to foreign employees of foreign governments, including the staff of embassies, or to parents engaged in a “commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship” for themselves or a surrogate.
The second order instructs the departments of State and Homeland Security to take steps to limit foreigners from traveling to the U.S. specifically to have children born there, a practice generally referred to as “birth tourism.” The order calls on the departments to update rules, policies and guidance, as well as other actions, without going into detail.
Though the order doesn’t specify how officials would screen for people intending to come to the U.S. for the express purpose of giving birth, the order suggests scrutiny will extend beyond visitors on tourist visas to other temporary visa categories, including student and work visas. It also said foreigners suspected of coming to the U.S. for birth tourism could have their visas canceled and could face lifetime bans on returning.
A federal regulation already prohibits tourist visas for foreigners seeking to obtain American citizenship for their child by giving birth in the U.S.
“They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it,” Trump said about why he was signing the orders.
Trump’s new orders are likely to be challenged in court.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), the Senate’s minority leader, called the president’s orders illegal. “Trump has just set himself up for yet another loss in the courts. Democrats will challenge this order, and we will win,” Schumer said in a statement.
On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive orderthat declared that future children born in the U.S. wouldn’t be considered citizens if their parents were living in the country illegally or were visiting the country on temporary visas. The order was quickly blocked by lower courts, and in a landmark decision in June, the Supreme Court struck it down.
A five-justice majority of the court ruled that the order violated the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, which guarantees citizenship to virtually everyone born on American soil. A sixth justice, Brett Kavanaugh, said the order violated a federal statute but not the Constitution. The court’s three most conservative justices dissented.
The 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”
The Trump administration has argued that the Supreme Court’s June ruling left the door open for the president to narrow citizenship for certain categories of children and to impose other measures to prevent people from coming to the country to give birth.
In 2024, 9,600 babies were born to mothers with foreign addresses, according to government data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute, though the think tank said the true scope could be as high as 22,000-26,000 babies a year.
The Migration Policy Institute also estimates that repealing birthright citizenship for babies born on U.S. soil to unauthorized immigrants or temporary visa holders would increase the population of people in the country illegally by an average of about 255,000 births a year.
