President Donald Trump Unveils Two Executive Orders Aimed at Curbing Birth Tourism and Broadening Limits on Automatic U.S. Citizenship Following Supreme Court Setback
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Aug. 6 aimed at restricting automatic U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States under circumstances involving commercial birth tourism and several other specified categories.
One of the executive orders prohibits birth tourism, the practice of traveling to the United States on a tourist visa for the purpose of giving birth so that the child automatically receives U.S. citizenship.
During the signing ceremony, Trump described the move as "a big deal," saying that birthright citizenship had been turned into "a joke."
The actions come after the U.S. Supreme Court, on June 30, struck down Trump's executive order that sought to deny automatic birthright citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants and legal temporary visitors.
Trump called the Supreme Court's ruling "very unfortunate" and said his administration was making adjustments in response.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Adviser Stephen Miller said the 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to ensure that the children of former slaves would be recognized as U.S. citizens.
"It had no other meaning and purpose other than that," Miller said during the press conference.
Miller said one of the new executive orders expands the categories of individuals who would be considered ineligible for birthright citizenship.
"That includes, for instance, alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments," he said.
According to Miller, the second executive order formally bans birth tourism.
"The idea that people come here, pretend to be a tourist, pretend to be a visitor, say they want to go to Disney Land ... but the real reason they are here is to have a child, make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child—it gives them access, under this broken system, to welfare benefits, ultimately the voting booth ... that practice of birth tourism, is as of the signing of this order, hereby banned," he said.
Trump also said wealthy individuals had built businesses around birthright citizenship.
"That’s not the way it was supposed to work. It’s a disgrace," Trump said. "They are buying their way in. We are not going to let it happen."
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) criticized Miller in a post on X.
"He’s the one pushing relentlessly to end birthright citizenship—which is illegal," she wrote.
"He needs to be investigated and prosecuted for the crimes he’s actively committing."
Separately, on July 21, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order directing state agencies to investigate and take enforcement action against unlawful birth tourism schemes connected to the state's healthcare industry.
The order instructs multiple agencies, including the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and medical licensing boards, to investigate healthcare providers suspected of participating in birth tourism operations.
Abbott's directive follows a July 7 order requiring an investigation into Texas hospitals advertising birth packages to foreign nationals. Two hospitals were later referred to the Texas attorney general for potential enforcement action.
