Trump administration issues new orders to curb birthright citizenship and birth tourism

The Trump administration unveiled two executive orders this week that would restrict automatic citizenship for children born in the United States under certain circumstances. The measures target infants of foreign diplomatic personnel, United Nations and other international organization staff, and individuals linked to groups the government designates as hostile, as well as children born to mothers who travel to the U.S. primarily to give birth.

Under existing law, the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, with limited exceptions for children of accredited foreign diplomats. The new orders expand those exemptions to include a broader range of diplomatic and international-organization employees and to bar citizenship for children of parents associated with designated terrorist organizations.

One order defines “birth tourism” as entering the country on a non-immigrant visa with the purpose of delivering a child. It would give immigration officials discretion to deny entry to pregnant travelers suspected of seeking U.S. citizenship for their newborns, though the order does not provide specific criteria for such determinations.

President Trump claimed that “hundreds of thousands” of births each year are linked to birth-tourism, a figure experts say is not supported by available data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 9,600 births to foreign-resident mothers in 2024, while a low-immigration think tank estimated 20,000-26,000 such cases annually.

Legal scholars expressed concern about the orders’ constitutionality. César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández, a law professor at Ohio State University, questioned how the government would identify children of members of “designated terrorist organizations,” noting the lack of public membership lists. He also warned that the surrogacy provision raises novel legal issues not addressed by the 14th Amendment or Supreme Court precedent.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf defended the actions, saying they rely on legally validated tools and do not conflict with Supreme Court rulings. Civil-rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, argue that the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship cannot be overridden by executive orders.

“The bottom line is that the Supreme Court already considered the Trump administration’s plea to rewrite the Constitution and rejected it,” said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project.

The orders are expected to face lawsuits, and legal experts anticipate that courts will closely examine whether the executive actions exceed the authority granted by the Constitution and prior Supreme Court decisions.