On August 6, Eastern Time, President Trump signed two executive orders targeting the commercial “birth tourism” industry and further restricting the scope of automatic citizenship for some children born in the United States.
The federal government is set to launch broader and tougher enforcement actions against the industry chain that organizes travel to the U.S. for childbirth through hotels and other establishments.
According to reports, Trump stated in his White House remarks that the birthright citizenship system has long been abused, and “birth tourism” has evolved into a business, with hundreds of thousands of people each year using various means to secure U.S. citizenship for their children, some even bringing dozens of kids under the guise of family arrangements.
Trump also mentioned that the Supreme Court previously made an “unfair” ruling against his policy restricting birthright citizenship, so the administration is pushing forward with new approaches to impose restrictions. He argued that the latest executive order is constitutional and said the government will end the practice of using commercial “birth tourism” to obtain U.S. citizenship.
This marks the second attempt during Trump’s current term to tighten birthright citizenship, and it is expected to face constitutional legal challenges again. The Supreme Court struck down a similar executive order in a key ruling on June 30.
During his first term, Trump repeatedly voiced intentions to end “birthright citizenship” via executive order and crack down on “birth tourism,” but never directly acted on it before leaving office in early 2021. On August 28, 2019, his administration adjusted policy via executive order, stipulating that children born overseas to government employees or military personnel would no longer automatically gain U.S. nationality, though the impact was minimal. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services estimates, the new rule affected at most 25 people annually.
During the more open and inclusive Biden administration, 2.4 million immigrants entered the U.S. annually, sparking the largest immigration wave in the nation’s history. So, while campaigning in 2023, Trump promised to require that at least one parent be a U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident for a child to automatically become a citizen; children of undocumented residents should not receive passports, social security, or other taxpayer-funded benefits and political rights.
On the first day of his second term, January 20, 2025, Trump signed a related executive order, refusing to recognize citizenship for children born in the U.S. to parents who are neither citizens nor green card holders, and stopping the issuance of B1/B2 tourist visas to applicants seeking birth tourism.
This specifically affects U.S. citizenship for two groups: first, those born when the mother was unlawfully present in the U.S. and the father was not a citizen or legal permanent resident; second, those born when the mother was legally but temporarily present in the U.S. and the father was not a citizen or legal permanent resident.
Subsequently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the First Circuit Court of Appeals both ruled that the executive order violates the “birthright citizenship” clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That clause explicitly states that anyone born in the U.S. or on territories under its jurisdiction automatically becomes a citizen, commonly known as “birthright citizenship.”
All states adopted the amendment in 1868 after the Civil War, and “territories under jurisdiction” include Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The group does not include children of diplomats. The 1898 ruling in “United States v. Wong Kim Ark” further solidified birthright citizenship.
From the 1990s onward, as illegal immigration surged, conservative political forces worried that residents of hostile nations could exploit birthright citizenship to undermine U.S. sovereignty and pose national security risks.
Mark Krikorian, head of the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies, pointed out that the amendment’s original intent was to prevent Southern states from denying citizenship to freed Black slaves after federal troops withdrew, but the framers never anticipated people from around the world rushing to the U.S. to give birth.
In 2014, around 275,000 newborns of undocumented immigrants gained citizenship, and in 2016, more than 4 million children born in the U.S. had at least one parent without formal citizenship.
In 2015, during Democrat Obama’s tenure, federal authorities raided more than a dozen homes in Southern California in a crackdown on “birth tourism,” charging over ten individuals, and a woman running a “You Win USA” maternity center pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 months in prison.
The ultimate interpretive authority of the U.S. Constitution rests with the Supreme Court. Following the maneuvers during Trump’s previous term, conservative justices now hold a 6-3 majority on the Court.
If lawsuits arise again, the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction” in the 14th Amendment could become a breakthrough point for Trump’s side, with conservatives exploring new interpretations of this clause. Previously, Trump administration officials floated a federal regulation suggesting that children of undocumented immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., thereby excluding them from the amendment’s protection.