Overview
- On Thursday President Trump signed two executive orders that direct Cabinet officials to change who is treated as eligible for U.S. citizenship at birth and to block people who enter the country to give birth.
- One order lists new categories the administration says should not get automatic citizenship, including children of designated “alien enemies,” some foreign government employees, people tied to fraud or commercial surrogacy schemes, and certain territorial births.
- The other order declares an immediate ban on what the White House calls birth tourism and tells the State Department and DHS to tighten visa screening, consular checks and enforcement against people or businesses that arrange births for citizenship.
- The move follows the Supreme Court’s June 30 decision that struck down an earlier, broader Trump order and legal experts and civil-rights groups say the new orders raise fresh 14th Amendment questions and are likely to be litigated quickly.
- Implementation faces practical and legal hurdles because executive orders do not change the Constitution or statutes, estimates of birth tourism vary widely, and lasting change would likely require congressional action or a constitutional amendment.