Washington — On Thursday, August 7th, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders in a renewed effort to restrict birthright citizenship for certain children born in the United States. This move follows the Supreme Court's June ruling that invalidated his earlier executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.

One of the new orders 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, "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 present in the U.S. through commercial transactions arranged to give birth.

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 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 acknowledged that birth tourism highlights negative effects of the current interpretation of the Citizenship Clause, noting, "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 described the Supreme Court decision as "very unfortunate" and indicated adjustments would be made accordingly.

These developments mark the latest chapter in ongoing debates over the scope of birthright citizenship in the United States.

Sources