US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders seeking to further restrict birthright citizenship, renewing his immigration crackdown weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt as unconstitutional.The new orders take a narrower approach than Trump’s previous directive and target categories the administration argues are not protected under the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment. These include children born to people travelling to the United States for “birth tourism”, children of foreign government employees in the US and children of people classified as alien enemies. The orders could also affect people born in US territories if Congress passes proposed legislation ending automatic citizenship there.The White House said the latest directives do not violate the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling because they apply to groups it argues fall outside the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.“That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned. What that means is that no one in the world is anymore allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose,” White House aide Stephen Miller said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.The executive orders are expected to face immediate legal challenges.Limiting birthright citizenship has remained a key priority of Trump’s immigration agenda, with the administration focusing on what it describes as “birth tourism”, in which pregnant foreign nationals travel to the US to give birth. According to a 2020 estimate by the Center for Immigration Studies, between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers travelled to the US for birth tourism during a one-year period between 2016 and 2017. The US recorded 3.6 million births in 2025.Trump criticised the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision upholding birthright citizenship protections.“We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision,” Trump said.“People are building businesses around it,” he 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,” he said.Trump also argued that the Citizenship Clause was adopted in a different historical context.“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?” Trump said in his White House remarks on Thursday.Trump’s earlier executive order, signed on his first day back in office in 2025, sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the US if neither parent was an American citizen or lawful permanent resident. The Supreme Court ruled that effort was unconstitutional, reaffirming longstanding interpretations of the 14th Amendment.Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the court, said the authors of the amendment intended to extend citizenship broadly 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,” Roberts wrote.The Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment states: “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.”While no US law explicitly bans birth tourism, federal regulations introduced during Trump’s first term in 2020 prohibit people from using tourist or business visas primarily to obtain US citizenship for a child. Those involved in birth tourism schemes can also face prosecution for fraud or related offences.
