US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders in the Oval Office aimed at limiting birthright citizenship and curbing the phenomenon known as birth tourism. The administration seeks to tighten existing regulations and narrow exceptions in the application of rules granting US citizenship to babies born on US territory.
Although the new executive orders set out policy guidelines, they are not legally binding in themselves in terms of directly changing the law. The White House claims that this directive does not exceed the boundaries of the Supreme Court ruling, noting that the court had previously allowed the expansion of categories of persons who would not be considered eligible for automatic citizenship. According to the administration’s interpretation, persons coming to the US solely for the purpose of birth tourism do not fall under the protection of birthright citizenship rules.
The practice of birth tourism is banned from the moment the orders were signed. No one will now be granted a visa for the purpose of coming to the US to give birth there. White House aide Stephen Miller stated that the practice is strictly banned, and those involved in organising such programmes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes. Currently, no US law directly bans birth tourism, but a federal regulation from 2020 already prohibited the use of temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining citizenship for a newborn.
The orders also restrict the rights of children born to foreign government officials and persons classified as foreign enemies. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in a 2020 analysis that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism between 2016 and 2017. In 2025, 3.6 million children were born in the US, indicating the scale of demographic data on which these measures could have an impact.
This move comes after the US Supreme Court on 30 June rejected Trump’s previous attempt to limit birthright citizenship, deeming it unconstitutional. Following that failure, Trump called on Congress to act. The new orders are likely to be challenged in court and could also affect people born in US territories if Congress passes the proposed law abolishing automatic citizenship there. The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution states that all persons born or naturalised in the US and subject to its jurisdiction are US citizens.
