Archive · 10 Aug 2026
Trump's birth tourism orders face uphill legal battle after ruling
Most babies born in the United States are automatic American citizens because of a rule in the Constitution called the 14th Amendment.
Some people travel to the United States just to have a baby, which is called 'birth tourism.'
President Donald Trump wants to stop that, but the Supreme Court, the country's highest court, said his first attempt broke the Constitution.
Trump did not give up, so he signed two new orders on Thursday.
One order says the government should not recognize citizenship if a parent broke the law on purpose to get it.
The other tries to block visas for people suspected of coming to the United States only to give birth.
Many lawyers think these new orders will also be stopped in court.
Trump says 'hundreds of thousands' of people are wrongly benefiting, but researchers say the number of such births is much smaller.
Some judges and experts agree with the president, while others say his plans are unfair and unconstitutional.
President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday targeting 'birth tourism,' including a directive that federal agencies not recognize citizenship for children whose parents engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain it.
The orders follow the U.S. Supreme Court's June 30 ruling in the case Trump v. Barbara, which struck down Trump's first birthright citizenship order as a violation of the 14th Amendment.
A second executive order seeks to bar visas for foreigners suspected of birth tourism, though enforcement remains unclear.
The new directives also expand citizenship exceptions — previously covering diplomats and hostile foreign troops — to include foreign government employees and foreign terrorists, dividing legal scholars.
Penn State University scholars estimate 5,000 to 10,000 birth-tourism births per year from 2014 to 2024, while Trump claimed 'hundreds of thousands' are wrongly benefiting.
- Who
- President Donald Trump, who signed the two executive orders; the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in June; and legal scholars divided over the new orders.
- What
- Two executive orders targeting birth tourism, one directing agencies not to recognize citizenship for children of parents engaged in fraud and another seeking to bar visas for suspected birth tourists.
- When
- Orders signed on Thursday, August 7; Supreme Court ruling came on June 30.
- Where
- United States; Trump announced the orders in the Oval Office.
- Why
- To curtail birth tourism as part of Trump's restrictive immigration agenda, after the Supreme Court struck down his first birthright citizenship order.
Critics and Court Majority
Trump Administration and Dissenters
Legality of the new citizenship exclusions
Critics and Court Majority
Law professor Rachel Rosenbloom called the new exclusions 'clearly unconstitutional,' and law professor John Yoo said the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Barbara leaves no exception for parents who fraudulently violated federal law to give birth on American soil.
Trump Administration and Dissenters
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said: 'There's absolutely nothing in here that runs afoul of any of the Supreme Court's opinions on the subject.'
Expanding the citizenship exceptions
Critics and Court Majority
Law professor Sam Erman warned that elastic terms like 'alien enemy' could historically have denied citizenship to the U.S.-born children of Japanese immigrants during World War II.
Trump Administration and Dissenters
Law professor Amanda Frost said expanding the diplomat category is potentially legal if done carefully, and John Yoo predicted the order's treatment of foreign terrorist organizations as enemy forces 'will eventually pass constitutional muster.'
Birthright citizenship itself
Critics and Court Majority
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority that citizenship was 'the right to have rights' and that the court 'keeps that promise today' for every free-born person in the land.
Trump Administration and Dissenters
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, writing that the court made 'a mistake that will seriously affect the country's future.' Alito said the ruling yields 'grotesque results' by making a birth tourist's child automatically a citizen.
- President
- Donald Trump
- Action
- Two executive orders targeting birth tourism and birthright citizenship
- First order
- Directs agencies not to recognize citizenship if a parent engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain it
- Second order
- Seeks to bar visas for foreigners suspected of birth tourism
- Supreme Court ruling
- Trump v. Barbara, June 30, 6-3 decision striking down Trump's earlier order
- Trump's claim
- 'Hundreds of thousands' wrongly benefiting from birth tourism
- Research estimate
- Penn State scholars: 5,000-10,000 birth-tourism births per year, 2014-2024
- Expanded exceptions
- Would add foreign government employees and foreign terrorists to citizenship exemptions