Trump signed two executive orders Thursday targeting “birth tourism,” the commercial practice of foreign nationals traveling to the U.S. specifically to give birth so their children obtain American citizenship.
The orders aim to deny citizenship to children born in the United States through commercial “birth tourism” and seek to deny birthright citizenship for children born of some foreign diplomatic staff in the U.S. and potentially U.S. territories in the future.
This marked Trump’s second major push to restrict birthright citizenship after losing decisively at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court split 6-3 in June in the case Trump v. Barbara, with five justices finding that Trump’s earlier executive order on birthright citizenship violated the 14th Amendment.
Trump responded to the Court’s June decision on Truth Social, posting, “The Supreme Court upheld Birthright Citizenship, which is too bad for our Country, but we can easily make it up in Congress through Legislation, with the support of the President, that has now been determined during this process. No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary! Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!”
A second executive order directs the secretary of state and the Department of Homeland Security secretary to issue rules and guidance to stop birth tourism and target the industry at home and abroad.
U.S. law already bans getting a tourist visa “for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States,” and immigration officials can deny a pregnant foreign national from entering the U.S. if they determine she’s entering the country for the purpose of giving birth.
Yet Trump administration officials have floated more aggressive measures.
Markwayne Mullin, the head of President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, suggested on “Fox & Friends” that this effort could include banning pregnant foreigners from traveling to the United States.
Just hours after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s effort to limit birthright citizenship through his executive order in June, the Justice Department sent a letter to all U.S. attorneys directing them to prioritize investigations and prosecution of “birth tourism schemes.”
Katie O’Connor, senior director of federal abortion policy at the National Women’s Law Center, told Axios that “the idea that data about who’s pregnant and how pregnant could get into the hands of the federal government, much less the state governments, that’s a really dangerous proposition.”
Republicans have pursued legislative alternatives after the Court’s defeat.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced legislation that would deny automatic citizenship to some children born in the United States less than two weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s birthright citizenship order, with the Citizenship Act of 2026 seeking to classify individuals who enter the United States without authorization or for “birth tourism” as part of an ongoing invasion and limit birthright citizenship for their children.
Banks told Fox News that the bill was inspired by Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion saying Trump’s order conflicted with federal birthright citizenship law passed by Congress in 1940.
Rep. Rich McCormick introduced a House companion bill to Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s Ban Birth Tourism Act of 2026, which together seek to end the practice of foreign nationals traveling to and giving birth in the U.S. so their children can obtain birthright citizenship.
McCormick said in a press release, “I am proud to join Senator Blackburn in introducing the House companion to the Ban Birth Tourism Act of 2026.”
In the viral moment that prompted Trump’s original push,
the Supreme Court on June 30 struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, reaffirming the more than 100-year-old understanding that nearly all of those born in the United States are citizens.
The Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment invalidated Trump’s previous executive order, which sought to strip birthright citizenship for children of parents who are unlawfully in the country or visiting under temporary status.
The Supreme Court’s ruling stated, “Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are ‘subject to the jurisdiction’ of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.”
The new measures are sure to be challenged in court as a violation of the 14th Amendment.