Washington — On Thursday, August 7, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at restricting birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States. This move follows the Supreme Court's June ruling that struck down his earlier executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.

One executive order targets individuals involved in commercial "birth tourism," seeking to deny them access to 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, "This has been something that people have talked about, not only for years, but for decades." He elaborated, "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 of the orders specifies that children born to individuals who engaged "in a commercial transaction to ensure that the person's mother is present in the United States, or a territory of the United States, to give birth" should not be granted citizenship documents.

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

During related Supreme Court 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, saying, "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."

President Trump acknowledged the Supreme Court decision as "very unfortunate" and indicated that adjustments are being made in response.

Sources