Washington — On Thursday, August 7th, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders in a renewed effort to deny citizenship to certain children born in the United States, after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.

One of the new orders targets individuals involved in commercial "birth tourism," seeking to deny them entry into the country. The other order broadens the categories of people deemed ineligible for birthright citizenship, including children of foreign citizens who lobby on behalf of foreign governments.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller described birth tourism as a long-standing issue, stating, "The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland or they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park, but the real reason they're here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child."

One order explicitly lists categories of people who should not receive citizenship documents, such as children born to mothers brought to the U.S. through commercial transactions for childbirth.

The Supreme Court's earlier decision was described by President Trump as "a very unfortunate decision" and "close," prompting the administration to make adjustments through these new orders.

Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, responded by saying, "Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one."

During related legal discussions, Chief Justice John Roberts told U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer, "You do agree that that has no impact on the legal analysis before us." Sauer noted that birth tourism highlights negative effects of the current interpretation of the Citizenship Clause, adding, "We're in a new world now … where 8 billion people are one plane ride away from having a child who is a U.S. citizen."

The administration argues that under the current system, birthright citizenship grants access to welfare benefits, voting rights, and other privileges reserved for Americans.

Sources