Trump signs new order to restrict birthright citizenship
Photo: REUTERS
US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday as part of a fresh, more focused attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, once again challenging the US Constitution despite a recent Supreme Court rejection.
This targets “birth tourism,” a practice where the White House claims pregnant foreigners visit the United States specifically to give birth.
Following a June 30 legal setback, Trump initially requested that Congress intervene, but he ultimately opted for executive orders which establish policy without the full weight of federal law.
Although the Supreme Court previously struck down a broader order as unconstitutional, the administration argues these new directives fall outside that ruling by reinterpreting historical exceptions to expand the list of those ineligible for citizenship.
Zain Lakhani of the Women’s Refugee Commission warned that these orders could violate the rights of pregnant women during “one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives” and urged the government to follow the Supreme Court’s established guidelines.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump called the High Court’s 6-3 ruling from June 30 a “very unfortunate decision” and complained that businesses are being built around birth tourism.
Trump said, “That’s not the way it’s supposed to work. It’s a disgrace. They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.”
A previous order from his first day in office in 2025 directed US agencies to withhold citizenship from children born in the country if neither parent was a US citizen or a legal permanent resident, also known as a green card holder.
Legal tradition has long held that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to nearly all infants born on US soil, with rare exceptions for the children of foreign diplomats or enemy forces.
Trump questioned this interpretation, saying, “This was done for a different reason. This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what’s happening now?”
While no official figures exist to track the number of people engaging in birth tourism or the associated taxpayer costs, Chief Justice John Roberts emphasized in the recent ruling that the 14th Amendment’s authors intended to cover every free-born person.
Roberts wrote, “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights - to freely participate in our political community. We keep that promise today.”
Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment explicitly declares, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
Source: Reuters (adapted)
