President Trump is once again attempting to put restrictions on who is automatically guaranteed citizenship after being born in the U.S., just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down his attempt to end birthright citizenship.
On Thursday, the president signed two executive orders, this time taking a more narrow focus on so-called "birth tourism."
The first order aims to exclude babies born to members of foreign terrorist groups or employees working for foreign governments, such as ambassadors.
The second order removes automatic citizenship for babies whose parents engaged in "birth tourism." This is an issue that Trump has raised for years, and the term refers to when pregnant foreigners visit the U.S. in order to give birth, so that their newborn can obtain American citizenship.
Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller was at the Oval Office when the executive orders were announced, calling the crackdown on the practice one of the most important actions that Trump has taken when it comes to immigration.
"It ends what has been one of the gravest and most egregious abuses of the American system, and it keeps American citizenship sacred," he said.
Trump tried to restrict birthright citizenship last year through an executive order signed on his first day in office. That one targeted babies born to parents in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
The order was quickly challenged in the courts and this June, the Supreme Court struck it down, reaffirming that birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
David Bier, an immigration policy analyst with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said that he expects a swift response in the courts.
"This is a situation where you would hope that the Supreme Court would step in very quickly to enforce its prior decision," he said.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Over the years, there have been some crackdowns on covert, lucrative businesses coaching travelers on how to conceal their pregnancies from immigration authorities. But the actual scale of the practice is unclear.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that in 2024, fewer than 10,000 babies were born in the U.S. to foreign residents.
Meanwhile, the Center for Immigration Studies — a group that supports restricting immigration — estimates that temporary visitors gave birth to about 70,000 babies in 2023.
Both estimates suggest that tourist births make up a small fraction of the 3.6 million babies born in the U.S. every year.
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