US President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders seeking to narrow birthright citizenship, renewing his challenge to a constitutional guarantee after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt to end it.
The move targets a central element of the Republican president’s immigration agenda, with the White House focusing especially on what it describes as “birth tourism”—the practice of pregnant foreigners travelling to the US to give birth.
Following his 30 June defeat at the Supreme Court, Mr Trump urged Congress to intervene. Yesterday, however, he turned instead to executive orders, which direct government policy but do not carry the force of legislation approved by Congress.
The Supreme Court had declared Mr Trump’s earlier order unconstitutional. That measure would have affected a broad group of children born to immigrants who were either in the country illegally or present on a temporary basis.
White House aide Stephen Miller said the ‘practice of birth tourism is hereby banned’
“That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned,” White House aide Stephen Miller said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
The Center for Immigration Studies, an organisation that advocates lower levels of immigration, estimated in a 2020 analysis that between20,000 and 25,000 mothers travelled to the US for birth tourism during a 12-month period spanning 2016 and 2017.
The US recorded 3.6 million births in 2025.
The new orders also restrict the rights of children born in the US to foreign government employees, as well as those whose parents are classified as alien enemies.
They could also have implications for people born in US territories if Congress passes a proposed law ending automatic citizenship there.
‘It’s a disgrace. They’re buying their way in’, says Donald Trump
Mr Trump’s latest orders are expected to trigger another legal battle. Experts said it was uncertain how much practical effect they could have in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling, while immigrant advocates accused the administration of trying to sidestep the high court. The ACLU said the measures were likely to fail in court.
“Just five weeks ago, the Supreme Court made clear that birthright citizenship is not subject to a president’s whims, it is a constitutional guarantee that has stood for more than 150 years. Today’s executive orders are nothing more than an attempt to get around that ruling,” said Deborah Fleischaker, a former Biden administration official now working with UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organisation.
The Women’s Refugee Commission warned that the orders could undermine the rights of pregnant women seeking lawful entry “in one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives”. It called on the administration to issue guidance consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision.
‘A very unfortunate decision’
Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr Trump described the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling on 30 June as a “very unfortunate decision”. He said people were building businesses around birth tourism.
“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,” he said.
Issued on Mr Trump’s first day in office in 2025, his previous executive order formed part of a wider immigration crackdown. It instructed US agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the country when neither parent was an American citizen or a legal permanent resident, also known as a “green card” holder. The policy would have denied citizenship to babies born to immigrants in the US illegally or on a temporary basis.
The US Supreme Court ruled against Donald Trump’s previous moves to end birthright citizenship
The 14th Amendment has traditionally been understood to guarantee citizenship to babies born in the United States, subject only to narrow exceptions, including children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.
“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?” Mr Trump said.
No official figures record how many foreigners travel to the US specifically to give birth and secure citizenship for their children, nor is there an established estimate of the cost to taxpayers.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the Supreme Court’s ruling that the authors of the 14th Amendment extended its guarantee to every free-born person in the country.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. We keep that promise today,” Justice Roberts wrote.
The 14th Amendment provision known as the Citizenship Clause states: “All persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
