Trump Signs New Executive Orders Restricting Birthright Citizenship

President Donald Trump has made a fresh attempt to curb birthright citizenship in the United States, issuing two new executive orders just weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his administration's broader attempt to dismantle the constitutional guarantee.

Speaking from the Oval Office during the signing ceremony, Trump expressed frustration over the high court's June decision, which struck down his day-one order by a 6-3 vote.

"We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright, it was close," Mr. Trump said in an Oval Office signing on Thursday. "But a very, very unfortunate decision. So we're making adjustments."

The president reiterated his view that the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, was never intended to apply universally to all people born on American soil.

"This was done right after the Civil War," Mr. Trump said Thursday. "This was for the babies of slaves."

Narrowing Citizenship Eligibility and Foreign Categories

The first of the two executive orders targets specific populations that the White House argues fall outside constitutional citizenship protections.

Under the directive, federal agencies are instructed to deny automatic citizenship to children born to two non-citizen parents if one parent fits into specific categories:

• Terrorist Organizations & Foreign Agents: Members of foreign terrorist groups or individuals who lobby on behalf of foreign governments.
• Government & Embassy Personnel: Foreign government employees, including expanded categories of embassy and consular staff.
• Fraudulent Activity: Parents who engaged in fraudulent transactions to obtain citizenship or enter the country to give birth.
• Territorial Limits: Individuals born in US territories where federal statute does not explicitly confer citizenship, such as American Samoa.

While children of foreign diplomats with diplomatic immunity are already legally exempt from birthright citizenship, the order seeks to broaden those exceptions. Conversely, citizenship for those born in territories like Puerto Rico remains codified by existing federal law.

"My Administration has guarded against the risks posed by malign foreign actors who attempt to swindle American citizens by taking advantage of the generosity of our Nation," the first executive order states.

Targeted Crackdown on 'Birth Tourism'

The second executive order delegates authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to target "birth tourism", which is the practice of foreign nationals traveling to the US on temporary visas for the primary purpose of giving birth to secure US citizenship for their infants.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, standing beside the president, argued that the order uses statutory executive powers to bar visitors who exploit the system.

"The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland or they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park, but the real reason they're here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child," Miller said. 

"It gives them access, under this broken system, to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans."

While Trump claimed that "hundreds of thousands" of infants are born via birth tourism, data from the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI) paints a different picture.

Constitutional and Legal Pushback

Legal experts and civil rights groups quickly questioned whether the new executive actions can withstand judicial scrutiny following the Supreme Court's June ruling.

Gabriel Chin, a law professor at the University of California, Davis, noted that while the White House has broad authority to deny travel visas to prospective parents, it lacks the power to strip citizenship once a child is born on US soil.

"The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one," Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement.

During oral arguments in the prior Supreme Court case, Chief Justice John Roberts directly addressed the issue when U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer cited birth tourism as evidence of negative outcomes.

"We're in a new world now … where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who is a U.S. citizen," Sauer argued.

“Well, it's a new world. It's the same Constitution," Chief Justice Roberts replied.

Despite predicted legal challenges, the administration expressed confidence that the tailored scope of the new directives will pass constitutional muster.