Updated August 7, 2026 at 6:48 PM EDT
President Trump is once again attempting to put restrictions on who is automatically guaranteed citizenship after being born in the U.S., just weeks after the Supreme Court ruled the president's attempt to end birthright citizenship was unconstitutional.
On Thursday, Trump signed two executive orders on birthright citizenship and so-called "birth tourism."
The first order, titled "Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship," aims to exclude babies born to employees working for foreign governments, such as embassy or consulate staff who are foreign nationals. Also excluded are children of members of foreign terrorist groups and whose parents are "engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."
Over the years, the Department of Justice has prosecuted businesses that charge for "birth tourism" services. The term refers to the controversial practice of pregnant women who misrepresent their reason for traveling to the U.S. in order to give birth in the country so that their newborn can receive automatic citizenship.
The scale of birth tourism remains unclear. Fewer than 10,000 babies were born in the U.S. to foreign residents in 2024, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Meanwhile, the Center for Immigration Studies — a group that supports restricting immigration — estimates that temporary visitors gave birth to about 70,000 babies in 2023.
Both estimates suggest that tourist births make up less than 2% of the 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. every year.
The second executive order, Ending Birth Tourism, directs the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security to prioritize the issue by denying visas to anyone suspected of engaging in the practice.
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller touted the crackdown as one of the most important immigration reforms that Trump has taken.
"It ends what has been one of the gravest and most egregious abuses of the American system, and it keeps American citizenship sacred," he said Thursday during the Oval Office signing.
Last year, on the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship for babies born to parents who were in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
This June, the Supreme Court struck down the order, reaffirming that birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which argued for birthright citizenship in the recent case before the Supreme Court, rejected the Trump administration's fresh efforts to curb the constitutional guarantee.
"Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one," Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement.
David Bier, an immigration policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said the executive orders were "blatantly ignoring the Supreme Court's decision."
"This is a situation where you would hope that the Supreme Court would step in very quickly to enforce its prior decision," he added.
White House staff secretary Will Scharf said Thursday that the administration is taking "legally validated means."
"There's absolutely nothing in here that runs afoul of any of the Supreme Court's opinions on the subject," he said.
Copyright 2026 NPR
