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By Steve Mollman
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President Donald Trump on Thursday signed executive orders aimed at narrowing access to birthright citizenship, marking a renewed effort after the Supreme Court struck down a broader administration policy earlier this year.
The move follows the Supreme Court's June 30 rejection of Trump's earlier executive order seeking to deny automatic citizenship to some children born in the United States to noncitizen parents.
The orders target what the administration describes as "birth tourism" and seek to deny automatic citizenship in a limited number of circumstances that officials argue fall within longstanding exceptions to the 14th Amendment. The White House said the measures expand the definition of people ineligible for birthright citizenship and strengthen restrictions aimed at curbing so-called birth tourism. Administration officials argued the new orders fall outside the scope of the Supreme Court's June ruling because they apply only to categories that they contend are not covered by birthright citizenship protections.
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Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment on Thursday.
How the New Orders Work
The order directs federal agencies not to recognize U.S. citizenship for certain people born in the United States when neither parent is a U.S. citizen and one of several conditions applies, including:
- when a parent is designated an "alien enemy,"
- works for a foreign government, or
- engages in a commercial transaction intended to obtain birthright citizenship.
Who Is Considered a Foreign Government Employee?
The order defines foreign government employees to include ambassadors, consular staff who are nationals of the sending country, people employed by foreign governments in an official capacity, and employees of international organizations who possess immunity.
The administration argues that the Supreme Court's ruling left room for exceptions to automatic citizenship that courts have historically recognized. One longstanding exception concerns children born to foreign diplomats, who are generally not considered fully subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
What Is Birth Tourism?
A separate executive order directs the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to take additional steps aimed at curbing birth tourism and targeting related businesses operating in the United States and abroad. Officials contend that some cases involving birth tourism involve fraudulent entry or misrepresentation by parents seeking U.S. citizenship for a child. A federal regulation adopted during Trump's first term bars people from using temporary tourist or business visas primarily to obtain U.S. citizenship for a child born in the United States.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said: "That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned."
The order defines birth tourism as a foreign national entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil, or assisting another foreign national in doing so. The order authorizes federal agencies to deny visas or travel authorizations to people seeking to engage in birth tourism, revoke existing travel documents, permanently bar entry, and pursue action against individuals or organizations involved in facilitating such schemes.
The birth-tourism provisions apply to parents who engage in a paid arrangement intended to secure U.S. citizenship for a child. The order also covers commercial arrangements involving surrogate mothers in the United States.
The order also addresses births in U.S. territories where citizenship is not conferred by federal statute. The language mirrors broader Republican efforts to revisit citizenship rules in certain U.S. territories after the Supreme Court's June ruling.
Following the Supreme Court's ruling, administration officials and allies increasingly focused on birth-tourism networks and visa scrutiny as an alternative path. In June, the State Department said it had identified hundreds of suspected birth-tourism cases and was revoking visas linked to people accused of using visitor visas to secure U.S. citizenship for their children.
What's Next
The order directs executive departments and agencies to issue public guidance on implementation within 30 days.
The measures are expected to face immediate legal challenges.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully challenged Trump's previous birthright citizenship order, said the new measures were unlikely to survive judicial scrutiny. "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," Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement.
Critics have argued that the 14th Amendment broadly guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil and that attempts to narrow that protection through executive action are unconstitutional. Civil rights groups and immigration advocates have long maintained that changes to birthright citizenship would require legislation or a constitutional amendment rather than executive action. Trump said Thursday that he believed the new actions were constitutional.
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Why Trump Is Trying Again
The new orders come after the Supreme Court dealt a major blow to Trump's broader effort to restrict birthright citizenship through executive action.
In June, the court ruled that children born in the United States are generally citizens at birth, reaffirming a longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment's Citizenship Clause while leaving intact certain historical exceptions. The decision preserved the legal framework established by the court's landmark 1898 ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which held that a child born in the U.S. to immigrant parents was an American citizen.
Trump and his allies have argued that the Citizenship Clause has been interpreted too broadly and have pointed to what they describe as abuses of the system through birth tourism. Following the ruling, Trump called on Congress to pursue legislation addressing the issue, writing on Truth Social that lawmakers should "start TODAY" on efforts to end birthright citizenship. House Speaker Mike Johnson later said lawmakers should examine potential legislative options.
Speaking Thursday, Trump said he believed the new executive actions were constitutional and described them as a new approach after the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort. "I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it and we're ending it a different way," he said.
Conservatives seized on a dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote that he was "not sure that today's opinion will stand the test of time" and argued the court had interpreted the Citizenship Clause too broadly.
Justice Samuel Alito also criticized the ruling, arguing in dissent that it would extend citizenship protections even to children born to people who came to the United States solely to give birth.
Trump has repeatedly made ending or limiting birthright citizenship a priority of his immigration agenda, arguing that the Constitution was never intended to cover individuals entering the country solely to secure citizenship for their children.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Samantha Beech and Gray R. Thomas
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