On Thursday, August 7th, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders aimed at narrowly restricting birthright citizenship in the United States. These actions follow a recent Supreme Court decision in Trump v. Barbara, which upheld birthright citizenship and struck 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. These include 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 some women travel to the U.S. solely to give birth. It delegates authority to the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to halt this practice. The U.S. government already possesses visa denial powers and has prosecuted birth tourism schemes, including under the Biden administration.

Despite the White House's claim that these measures will "protect the meaning and value of American citizenship," critics argue the orders are largely symbolic and combine unconstitutional provisions with what has been described as "performance art." The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended citizenship to "every free-born person in this land," a principle reaffirmed by the Supreme Court.

Sources