On Thursday, August 7th, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders that attempt to narrowly restrict birthright citizenship in the United States. These actions 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 suppress it.

The first executive order identifies specific 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 commercial transactions to obtain birthright citizenship. It also excludes children born in U.S. territories or territorial waters where citizenship is not granted by federal statute. The order further mentions children of persons employed by international organizations with immunity and ambassadors, despite existing diplomatic immunity rules that already exclude such children from birthright citizenship.

The second order focuses on "birth tourism," where women travel to the U.S. solely to give birth and secure citizenship for their child. This order delegates authority to the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to halt the practice. The U.S. government already has mechanisms to deny visas to those suspected of birth tourism and has prosecuted operators of birth tourism schemes, including under President Joe Biden's administration.

The White House claims these measures will "protect the meaning and value of American citizenship." However, critics argue the orders are largely performative and combine unconstitutional provisions with symbolic gestures that will have little practical effect.

The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended citizenship to "every free-born person in this land," a principle reaffirmed by the Supreme Court recently, underscoring the constitutional challenges these executive orders face.

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