President Donald Trump Continues Targeting Birthright Citizenship With New Executive Order
President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders Thursday purporting to narrow birthright citizenship and limit which children born to immigrants in the United States qualify. signed two executive orders. One is titled ‘Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,’ which narrows which children qualify for automatic citizenship; the other directs the State Department and DHS to restrict entry for suspected ‘birth tourism.’ The moves come after the Supreme Court in June rejected Trump’s earlier effort to end birthright citizenship outright
President Donald Trump Once Again Targets Birthright Citizenship
At a White House signing ceremony, Trump called the court’s decision unfair and said that the new orders were moves to try to end birthright citizenship by other means. Trump said in remarks at the signing, “Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending it a different way.” He vowed to step up enforcement against pregnant foreign women coming to the country or foreign men who use surrogates on U.S. soil to secure citizenship for their children.
Proponents of birthright citizenship wasted no time in criticizing the orders as an attempt by President Donald Trump and his administration to get around the Supreme Court’s finding that the 14th Amendment cannot be struck down by the President. Section 1 of the 14th Amendment in part reads, per the Constitution Annotated site, “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.”
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Supreme Court Ruling Against Donald Trump on 14th Amendment
The Supreme Court blocked Trump’s move to limit birthright citizenship back in late June. The ruling was a massive blow to his crackdown agenda. The ruling, which was a divided 6-3, concluded that the Jan. 20, 2025 executive order issued by President Donald Trump was unlawful. Five justices said that the order was against the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. However, one justice, conservative Brett Kavanaugh, said the order was against federal law but did not violate the Constitution.
It was another significant Supreme Court blow for Trump, along with the February ruling that did not validate his sweeping tariffs and the decision preventing him from immediately firing Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority and has ruled in Trump’s favor in other cases. Trump had appointed three of the six justices.
The 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to ensure that every person in the country, including former slaves, was guaranteed basic rights and legal protections. If Trump’s order had been passed, birthright citizenship would have been severely limited to one parent who is a citizen or permanent resident. Children who were born to those in the country temporarily or in the country illegally wouldn’t be U.S. citizens by birth.
Donald Trump’s Order on “Birth Tourism”
The administration defines birth tourism as entering the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa specifically to give birth in the country. Immigration officials already treat that as fraud, but the new order gives officers broader discretion to deny entry to pregnant women they suspect may be seeking citizenship for their child. The orders also target companies that facilitate birth tourism, accusing them of deceptive advertising and coaching clients to misrepresent their travel plans.
The administration argues these operators promise citizenship and specialized accommodations but often fail to deliver. Previous administrations have also pursued such operators, particularly those helping women conceal pregnancies while traveling. Texas’ Gov. Abbott issued an executive order, launching an investigation into potential birth tourism schemes after hospitals near the border advertised birthing services in Mexico.
The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, and the two major Supreme Court rulings have reinforced that standard. Only a few narrow exceptions exist today, mostly involving children of accredited foreign diplomats. Trump’s renewed push underscores how central the issue has become to his immigration agenda, even as courts continue to push back.
