Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
US President Donald Trump on Friday (IST) signed two executive orders aimed at restricting birthright citizenship, reviving one of his administration’s key immigration priorities despite the Supreme Court recently rejecting an earlier attempt to curb the constitutional guarantee.
The new measures focus on narrowing eligibility for automatic citizenship in specific cases, including children born to individuals who travel to the United States for what the administration describes as “birth tourism.” The White House argues that the latest orders are more narrowly tailored than Trump’s previous directive and therefore do not conflict with the Supreme Court’s ruling.
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At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, White House aide Stephen Miller said the administration was moving to end the practice of foreigners travelling to the US primarily to secure citizenship for their children.
“That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned. What that means is that no one in the world is anymore allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose,” Miller said.
The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in a 2020 analysis that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers travelled to the United States for birth tourism during a one-year period between 2016 and 2017. The US recorded 3.6 million births in 2025.
The executive orders also seek to limit citizenship-related rights for children born to foreign government employees in the United States and for children of individuals classified as alien enemies. They could also affect people born in US territories if Congress passes proposed legislation ending automatic citizenship there.
The latest move is expected to face immediate legal challenges.
‘A VERY UNFORTUNATE DECISION’
Trump sharply criticised the Supreme Court’s decision that blocked his earlier attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, calling it a setback for his administration’s immigration agenda.
“We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision,” Trump said, referring to the court’s 6-3 ruling.
He argued that the current interpretation of citizenship laws had encouraged abuse of the system.
“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.”
Following the court’s ruling on June 30, Trump had urged Congress to address the issue legislatively. Instead, he has now turned once again to executive action in an effort to advance the policy.
BATTLE OVER THE 14TH AMENDMENT
Trump’s original executive order, signed on his first day back in office in 2025, sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States if neither parent was a US citizen or lawful permanent resident. The policy would have affected children born to immigrants in the country illegally as well as those present on temporary visas.
For more than a century, however, the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment has generally been interpreted as guaranteeing citizenship to nearly all people born on US soil, with limited exceptions such as children of foreign diplomats or members of an occupying enemy force.
Trump argued that the amendment was never intended to address modern immigration issues.
“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?” he said during his White House remarks.
The Supreme Court took a different view. In its ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the authors of the 14th Amendment intended to extend citizenship protections broadly to all free-born persons in the United States.
“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community. We keep that promise today,” Roberts wrote.
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.”
FOCUS ON BIRTH TOURISM
While no federal law explicitly bans birth tourism, regulations introduced during Trump’s first term in 2020 restricted the use of tourist and business visas by individuals whose primary purpose was to obtain US citizenship for a child born in the country. Authorities can prosecute those involved in birth tourism schemes for visa fraud and related offences.
The Trump administration now argues that people entering the country specifically for birth tourism purposes should not automatically qualify for constitutional protections tied to birthright citizenship.
With legal challenges almost certain, the latest executive orders are set to reignite a long-running constitutional and political battle over the scope of American citizenship and immigration policy.
– Ends
With inputs from Reuters
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
