In brief
Donald Trump files a pair of executive orders that seek to expand the list of non‑citizens who may prevent newborns from obtaining automatic citizenship and to ban birth‑tourism practices. The first order threatens birthright citizenship for children of foreign terrorist group members, foreign government employees and fraudsters, while also targeting Americans born in U.S. territories without federal citizenship statutes. The second order attempts to curb the estimated 22,000–26,000 birth‑tourism births per year, following a Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of birthright citizenship. Legal experts argue while the president can limit who enters the U.S. to give birth, the 14th Amendment still guarantees citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.
Donald Trump is pushing to roll back the 150‑year‑old right of citizenship givers for children born in the United States, after the Supreme Court nullified his earlier effort.
The President signed a pair of orders on Thursday: one expands the list of non‑citizen parents who could prevent a newborn from automatically becoming a citizen, and another bans “birth tourism”, the practice of pregnant foreign nationals entering the country solely to give birth.
“This should have happened years ago, but we're taking care of it now,” Trump said in a brief Oval Office address, lamenting the court’s decision and warning of “malign foreign actors” who exploit birthright citizenship for “welfare benefits” and “voting rights.”
The first order targets children born to parents who are members of a foreign terrorist group, a foreign government employee, or have fraudulently sought citizenship, as well as those born in U.S. territories where the law does not provide default citizenship. The second order aims to curb the estimated 22,000 to 26,000 babies born annually through birth tourism, a figure that stands in contrast to the ten thousand foreign‑address births recorded by federal data for 2024.
Legal scholars note that while President Trump has authority to limit who can enter the U.S. to give birth, once a child is born the Constitution still affirms citizenship. The court’s ruling in June 2025 made that clear, prompting the current executive orders as a new strategy to address the issue.
