Trump Signs Executive Orders to Limit Birthright Citizenship Amid Ongoing Immigration Crackdown

US President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders in a new, but narrower, attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, renewing his challenge to a provision of the US Constitution after the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.

Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president's crackdown on immigration, with the White House taking particular aim at what it calls "birth tourism", in which pregnant foreigners travel to the US to give birth.

After his Supreme Court setback in June, in which Mr Trump's earlier effort to restrict birthright citizenship was declared unconstitutional, Mr Trump called on Congress to act — but on Thursday he opted for executive orders, which set policy for the federal government but are not legally binding.

The administration argues the new directive does not fall within the limits of the Supreme Court ruling, allowing it to expand who would be considered ineligible for birthright citizenship, including those who would arrive for "birth tourism" purposes.

The categories excluded from citizenship, Mr Trump's order says, "do not fall within the rule of birthright citizenship as announced by the Supreme Court".

The executive orders also limit the rights of children born to foreign government employees in the US, and children of people who are classified as "alien enemies". They could also affect people born in US territories, should Congress enact a proposed law to end automatic citizenship there.

Each of Mr Trump's orders and any potential legislation is expected to be challenged further in court.

Constitution allows only narrow exceptions

"We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision," Mr Trump said of the 6-3 vote. "People are building businesses around it," he said. "That's not the way it's supposed to work. It's a disgrace. They're buying their way in, and we're not going to let it happen."

Mr Trump's prior executive order, issued on his first day in office in 2025 as part of a suite of policies to crack down on immigration, directed US agencies not to recognise the citizenship of children born in the US if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, also called a "green card" holder — barring babies of immigrants in the US illegally or temporarily.

The US Constitution's 14th Amendment has long been interpreted as guaranteeing citizenship for all babies born in the US, with only narrow exceptions such as the children of foreign diplomats or members of an enemy occupying force.

"This was done for a different reason. This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what's happening now?" Mr Trump said in his White House remarks on Thursday, local time.

There are no official figures tallying the number of foreigners who come to the US for the explicit purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for their children, or the cost to taxpayers. The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in 2020 that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016 and 2017. There were 3.6 million births in the US in 2025.

In any case, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the Supreme Court ruling that the authors of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every free-born person in the land. "Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights — to freely participate in our political community. We keep that promise today," Justice Roberts wrote.

The 14th Amendment provision, known as the Citizenship Clause, states: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."

No US law outright bars birth tourism, but a federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump's first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a newborn. People who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes.