On Thursday, August 7th, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders aimed at narrowly restricting birthright citizenship in the United States. These orders come just over a month after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in the case Trump v. Barbara, striking down a broader attempt by Trump to limit it.

The first executive order specifies certain groups whose children would not be eligible for citizenship at birth. It excludes children born to parents deemed "alien enemies" by the government, "foreign government employees," or those who have "engaged in a commercial transaction" to obtain birthright citizenship for their child. It also excludes children born in U.S. territories or territorial waters where citizenship is not conferred by federal statute. The order further mentions children of persons employed by international organizations with immunity and ambassadors, though children of diplomats with full immunity already do not receive birthright citizenship as they are not "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States.

The second order addresses "birth tourism," where some women travel to the U.S. solely to give birth on American soil. This order delegates presidential authority to the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to halt the practice. The U.S. government already has the power to deny visas to applicants suspected of intending to give birth in the country and has prosecuted operators of birth tourism schemes, including during President Joe Biden's administration.

The White House claims these measures will "protect the meaning and value of American citizenship." However, legal analysts argue the orders combine unconstitutional provisions with what they describe as "performance art," and are unlikely to have any practical effect.

The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended birthright citizenship to "every free-born person in this land," a principle reaffirmed by the Supreme Court recently.

(Photo: Denis Shevchuk/Elnur/Dreamstime; Illustration: Fatima Ruiz, Midjourney)

Sources

  • Reason, Billy Binion, "Trump's new birthright citizenship executive orders are mostly theater," August 7, 2026, link