President Donald Trump signed two key executive orders on Thursday aimed at limiting the scope of birthright citizenship, a longstanding priority of his second term.
The first executive order expands the definition of people the administration says are ineligible for birthright citizenship to include “alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign government.”
Trump also signed another executive order aimed at ending “birth tourism,” in which foreign nationals travel to the U.S. to give birth so their children automatically receive U.S. citizenship.
According to federal regulations, it is already illegal for people to obtain tourist visas “for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the United States.”
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump called birthright citizenship “a disgrace.”
“They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen,” Trump said, referring to people who obtained their U.S. citizenship by being born on American soil.
Standing beside the president during the announcement, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that he said gave the administration the authority to expand the definition. In that ruling, however, the Supreme Court reaffirmed birthright citizenship, striking down Trump’s broader 2025 executive order, issued in January 2025, denying automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents.
Miller reiterated the administration’s argument that the 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to all people born or naturalized in the U.S., was passed to ensure that the children of enslaved people would be citizens but is now being exploited.
The pair of executive orders will likely be legally challenged.
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