President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he is issuing two new executive actions intended to curb birthright citizenship and limit so-called “birth tourism.” He said one action will narrow who is eligible for U.S. citizenship by virtue of being born in the United States, and the other will impose tougher restrictions on visitors who travel to the U.S. to give birth.
Trump provided few specific details about the measures during the announcement but said he believes the actions are constitutional. The move comes after the Supreme Court in June rejected an earlier attempt by the president to limit birthright citizenship and affirmed a broad interpretation of the Constitution’s guarantee that people born on U.S. soil are citizens.
Earlier in his second term, on his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order seeking to end automatic citizenship at birth. That order was quickly challenged in court by opponents who argued it violated the 14th Amendment, adopted after the Civil War, which grants citizenship to most people born in the country. Lower courts blocked the order before it could take effect, and the Supreme Court ultimately struck it down in a 6-3 decision.
Trump’s latest actions signal he will continue pushing the issue despite the high court’s ruling. Administration officials say the new measures will target loopholes and curtail the practice of traveling to the United States specifically to obtain citizenship for children — an activity the president and his aides refer to as “birth tourism.” Legal observers and immigration advocates say the legal status of birthright citizenship has long been settled and that attempts to alter it by executive action raise serious constitutional questions.
How the new orders will be written, implemented and challenged remains to be seen. Opponents are likely to file legal challenges again, and courts will decide whether an administration can change long-standing interpretations of the 14th Amendment through executive action.