Trump Issues New Executive Order Narrowing Birthright Citizenship

On Friday, August 7th, 2026, former President Donald Trump issued a new executive order aimed at restricting birthright citizenship in the United States. This order follows a June ruling by the Supreme Court that invalidated an earlier Trump executive order which denied citizenship to children born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants and non-citizen parents on temporary visas.

The latest order narrows its scope, denying birthright citizenship to four specific categories of children:

• Children of "alien enemies," defined as those with at least one parent designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization under 8 U.S.C. 1189 or as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist, consistent with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001.
• Children born in U.S. territories or territorial waters where citizenship is not conferred by federal statute, notably American Samoa.

Except for children of foreign-government employees with diplomatic immunity, these children are entitled to birthright citizenship under the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Trump v. Barbara. The clause grants citizenship to all children "born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof," which the Court clarified includes children of all persons required to obey U.S. law.

The new executive order, like its predecessor, is considered unconstitutional by legal experts and the Supreme Court's prior ruling. The affected groups, however, are smaller than those targeted in the earlier order.

Sources

• Reason, Ilya Somin, "Trump Issues Another Unconstitutional Executive Order Targeting Birthright Citizenship," August 7, 2026, link