The ACLU is asking a federal judge to block Trump birthright citizenship restrictions, setting up a new court fight over whether the president can narrow who gets automatic citizenship under the 14th Amendment. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in New Hampshire comes just days after President Donald Trump signed two executive orders aimed at carving out exceptions to birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier, broader push.
The legal filing says the administration cannot enforce the new directives against children already covered by an earlier injunction. The groups want the court either to issue a fresh injunction or to clarify that the government cannot use the new orders to deny citizenship protections. Trump signed the measures on Aug. 6 at the White House and defended them as a response to what he called unfair abuse of the system. He pointed to birth tourism, saying, “They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen,” and added, “We’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair.”
The White House says the new actions stay within the Supreme Court’s guidance and are meant to protect the integrity of the immigration system. The orders do not simply repeat the earlier policy that the court rejected on June 30. Instead, they focus on narrower categories the administration says should not automatically qualify for citizenship, including birth tourism, certain children of foreign-government workers, cases involving immigration fraud, and people classified as alien enemies.
One of the orders directs the government to deny entry to people officials determine are trying to enter the country mainly to give birth and secure citizenship for their children. Another targets additional categories of US-born children whose parents fall into circumstances identified by the administration. Trump’s effort is the latest turn in a long-running effort to narrow birthright citizenship, a debate that has become a flashpoint in the broader fight over immigration, the Constitution, and the limits of executive power.
