Birthright Citizenship Push Returns With New Trump Orders

Birthright citizenship is back at the center of a major legal fight after President Donald Trump signed new orders targeting birthright citizenship and birth tourism in the United States. The moves are part of a fresh effort to narrow access to citizenship after the Supreme Court rejected his first attempt in June.

One order seeks to broaden the categories of non-citizen parents whose children would not receive automatic citizenship at birth. Under the directive, babies born in the United States to two non-citizen parents would not automatically qualify if one parent is linked to a foreign terrorist group, works for a foreign government, tried to obtain citizenship through fraud, or lives in a U.S. territory where federal law does not grant citizenship. Some of those groups are already excluded under current rules, but the foreign terrorist group provision could raise questions about how membership would be determined and who would carry the burden of proof.

Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, said it is unclear how such membership would be established and whether the government or the individual would have to prove the claim. That uncertainty goes to the heart of the new order’s legal vulnerability. The administration is trying to redraw the lines around birthright citizenship, but the practical question remains how those lines would be enforced.

The second executive order targets birth tourism, which refers to foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. specifically to give birth so their child can receive citizenship. Trump directed the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to tighten regulations and step up enforcement against the practice. The order says operators in the industry use deceptive advertising to lure foreign nationals with promises of citizenship, access to public benefits, and short stays in specialized facilities, hotels, or rentals.

The administration’s position is that birth tourism exploits a legal system built around a very different era. Trump has long argued that automatic citizenship has opened the door to abuse and that the United States should stop rewarding people who arrive only to secure citizenship for a newborn. The issue became a central part of the administration’s legal argument when the case reached the Supreme Court in April.