President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday aimed at narrowing eligibility for birthright citizenship and cracking down on so-called birth tourism, in a renewed push following a Supreme Court ruling that struck down his earlier, broader attempt on the issue.
The first order identifies specific categories of children who would not qualify for automatic citizenship despite being born on U.S. soil, including those born to foreign nationals with diplomatic ties, members of designated foreign terrorist organizations, and individuals acting on behalf of foreign governments. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has helped shape the administration’s immigration agenda, said the order builds on historical exceptions to birthright citizenship that the Supreme Court has previously recognized.
The second order directs the secretaries of State and Homeland Security to tighten enforcement against birth tourism, denying visas to travelers seeking to enter the U.S. for the primary purpose of giving birth. Trump said the practice had turned into a business model exploited by wealthy foreign nationals, singling out unnamed “elites” he said were paying intermediaries to secure citizenship for their children.
The move follows the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision in Trump v. Barbara, which rejected the administration’s 2025 executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are undocumented or in the country temporarily. The court’s ruling upheld the longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to virtually everyone born on American soil, while leaving narrower, historically recognized exceptions intact — a distinction the administration says it is now relying on.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump called the earlier ruling “very unfortunate” and said his new approach was designed to withstand legal challenges. Legal scholars have noted that existing law already prohibits travelers from obtaining visas explicitly to secure citizenship for a child through birth in the U.S., raising questions about how much the new order changes in practice.
The White House, in a fact sheet accompanying the signing, described the measures as necessary to protect the integrity of U.S. citizenship from what it called exploitation by “malign foreign actors” and organized birth tourism operations. Immigration advocates and legal experts are expected to challenge the orders in court, as they did with Trump’s first-term effort, arguing they conflict with the plain text of the 14th Amendment.
