President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Aug. 6 that will restrict automatic citizenship to children born in the United States because of commercial birth tourism and several other factors.
One of the measures bans birth tourism, the practice of traveling to the United States on a tourist visa with the intention of having a child that is given automatic U.S. citizenship.
Trump called it “a big deal” and said during the signing ceremony that birthright citizenship has been made into a joke.
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 struck down Trump’s executive order excluding children of illegal immigrants and legal temporary visitors from automatic birthright citizenship.
Trump called the Supreme Court decision “very unfortunate” and said his administration was making adjustments.
Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller said the 14th Amendment was passed right after the Civil War to ensure that the children of slaves would be citizens.
“It had no other meaning and purpose other than that,” Miller said during the press conference.
Miller said one executive order will expand the definition of people who are ineligible for birthright citizenship.
“That includes, for instance, alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments,” he said.
Miller said the second action Trump took would ban birth tourism.
“The idea that people come here, pretend to be a tourist, pretend to be a visitor, say they want to go to Disney Land ... but the real reason they are here is to have a child, make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child—it gives them access, under this broken system, to welfare benefits, ultimately the voting booth ... that practice of birth tourism, is as of the signing of this order, hereby banned,” he said.
Trump said that wealthy people were building businesses around birthright citizenship.
“That’s not the way it was supposed to work. It’s a disgrace,” Trump said. “They are buying their way in. We are not going to let it happen.”
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) criticized Miller in a post on X.
“He’s the one pushing relentlessly to end birthright citizenship—which is illegal,” she said.
“He needs to be investigated and prosecuted for the crimes he’s actively committing.”
On July 21, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order directing state agencies to investigate and take enforcement action against unlawful birth tourism schemes involving the state’s healthcare industry.
The order directs several agencies, including the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and medical licensing boards, to investigate healthcare providers suspected of participating in birth tourism schemes.
The order follows Abbott’s July 7 directive to investigate Texas hospitals advertising birth packages to foreign nationals. Two hospitals were subsequently referred to the Texas Attorney General for potential enforcement action.
