Trump Issues New Executive Orders Targeting Birthright Citizenship

President Donald Trump has issued two new executive orders that seek to narrow the scope of birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment. The second order, “Ending Birth Tourism,” aims to restrict foreign nationals entering the United States primarily to give birth to children who would automatically become U.S. citizens. Both orders follow the Supreme Court’s June decision in *Trump v. Barbara*, which struck down Trump’s original 2024 order on the same issue.

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The 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause has long been interpreted to grant citizenship to “all persons” born on U.S. soil, a principle known as *jus soli*. Supreme Court rulings such as *United States v. Wong Kim Ark* affirmed citizenship for children of immigrants, while *Dred Scott v. Sandford* denied it to enslaved Black people. In *Trump v. Barbara*, a 5-4 majority held that the Constitution does protect birthright citizenship; dissenting justices, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh, argued for a more limited reading. The decision prompted the administration to pursue the new orders as an alternative route to achieve its policy goals.

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• Birth tourism accounts for less than 2 percent of all U.S. births, a figure that includes all foreign-born parents, not just those alleged to have committed visa fraud.

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• Solicitor General John Sauer acknowledged that “no one knows” the exact number of birth-tourism cases and could provide only anecdotal newspaper clippings from China.

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• The administration has not released quantitative estimates to support its claim that “hundreds of thousands” of births result from birth tourism.

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• The ACLU stated that birthright citizenship is constitutionally guaranteed and cannot be altered by executive order.

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• Solicitor General John Sauer, speaking at oral argument, conceded the lack of reliable data on birth tourism and emphasized that existing visa-fraud statutes already address fraudulent applications.

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• Justice Brett Kavanaugh, in a separate opinion, contended that the Constitution does not protect birthright citizenship for children of non-permanent or temporary visitors, suggesting that Congress could modify the rule through legislation.

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• Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the majority opinion in *Barbara*, reaffirmed the long-standing interpretation of the Citizenship Clause and noted that the diplomatic exception is narrowly limited to children of foreign diplomats.

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Critics argue that the expanded diplomatic exception stretches historical precedent and would enable discriminatory judgments against children of immigrants. The ACLU warned that the orders could lead to frequent ill-founded judgments by granting the Secretary of State and the Department of Homeland Security broad discretion to grant exemptions.

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• The administration’s claim of “hundreds of thousands” of birth-tourism births conflicts with the ACLU’s citation of the less-than-2 percent figure and the Solicitor General’s admission of no reliable statistics.

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• No concrete data have been provided to quantify how many children would be affected by the expanded diplomatic-exception language in the first order.

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• The legal effect of the orders remains uncertain, as courts have not yet ruled on their constitutionality.

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Conservative legal strategists are meeting to develop a plan to overturn the *Barbara* decision, indicating that further challenges to birthright citizenship may be forthcoming. The administration’s executive orders are expected to face judicial review, and the Department of Justice has indicated that it will defend the orders in any forthcoming lawsuits.

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