President Trump signed two executive orders Thursday targeting birth tourism and expanding the categories of people ineligible for automatic birthright citizenship, a direct response to the Supreme Court's June ruling that blocked his earlier, broader attempt.
The orders represent the administration's sharpest move yet on an issue that has defined Trump's immigration agenda since his first days in office. The first order identifies specific groups whose children born on U.S. soil would no longer qualify for automatic citizenship, including children of designated alien enemies, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and individuals who lobby or act on behalf of foreign governments. The second order formally bans birth tourism by directing the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security to deny visas to anyone traveling to the United States specifically to give birth and secure citizenship for their child.
The actions come after the Supreme Court struck down Trump's original birthright citizenship executive order in June 2026. That ruling, which AP News reported was decided by a 6-3 vote, held that birthright citizenship is protected under the Fourteenth Amendment. The new orders take a narrower approach, targeting defined categories rather than attempting a blanket restriction.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller framed the birth tourism ban as one of the administration's most consequential immigration actions. He cited the practice of foreign nationals entering the country on tourist visas, claiming they want to visit Disneyland or a national park, when their actual purpose is to give birth on American soil and secure U.S. citizenship for the child.
"It gives them access under this broken system to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans. So that practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned. And what that means is that no one in the world is any more allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose."
Miller told reporters the order ranks in his "top three in terms of importance" among the president's actions because it "keeps American citizenship sacred." The legal authority for the birth tourism ban rests on Section 215A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which grants the president broad power over visa issuance. Fox News reported the birth tourism order marks the first time in U.S. history that the federal government has formally banned the practice by executive action.
An estimated 26,000 births out of roughly 3.5 million annual U.S. births may qualify as birth tourism births, according to AP News. That number is small relative to total births, but Miller and the administration argue the practice has spawned an organized industry. Trump himself pointed to the commercial dimension.
"People are building businesses around it. Wealthy people are building businesses around birthright citizenship. That's not the way it's supposed to work."
The New York Post noted the order also targets organized criminal rings that facilitate birth tourism, though enforcement mechanisms remain unclear, particularly how authorities will determine a pregnant woman's true intent when applying for a visa.
The administration's original executive order attempted a sweeping redefinition of who qualifies for birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court rejected it. Trump acknowledged the loss Thursday but signaled he viewed the new orders as a viable workaround.
"We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we're making adjustments because it's very unfair."
Trump also invoked the historical origins of the Fourteenth Amendment's citizenship clause, stating it was enacted after the Civil War to protect "the babies of slaves" and was never intended to create the modern birth tourism industry.
The first executive order takes a category-by-category approach rather than a blanket restriction. The White House explained through its Rapid Response account that the order "non-exhaustively identifies certain categories of children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship consistent with historical exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court in Barbara." Miller listed three categories: children of alien enemies of the United States, children of members of foreign terrorist organizations, and children of individuals who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments.
The word "non-exhaustively" signals the administration may add categories later. Just the News reported the orders represent Trump's continued effort to restrict birthright citizenship despite judicial setbacks, and noted that U.S. law already bans tourists from obtaining visas primarily to give birth, raising questions about what new enforcement power the second order actually creates.
Legal challenges are virtually certain. Cody Wofsy of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project dismissed the new orders as legally futile, telling AP News:
"The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution."
The administration is betting that the narrower scope, targeting defined categories tied to national security and foreign government affiliation rather than all children of illegal immigrants, will survive scrutiny that the first order could not. Whether courts agree will likely depend on how judges read the Supreme Court's reasoning in Trump v. Barbara and whether the new categories fall within the "historical exceptions" the Court recognized.
Alongside the immigration actions, Trump signed a separate proclamation establishing a minimum import price program on polysilicon and polysilicon derivatives, imposing a 15 percent tariff on derivative products. The proclamation invokes Section 232, the national security provision of trade law that the administration has used repeatedly to justify tariff actions.
White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf described the action as "a series of trade and tariff actions under Section 232, intended to ensure that domestic polysilicon manufacturing is properly supported and protected from overseas dumping and offshore threats." Polysilicon is a critical material in solar panels and semiconductor manufacturing.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick tied the tariff to the administration's broader reshoring agenda, stating that Trump's trade policies have already brought 50 percent of polysilicon production into the United States but that the domestic supply chain remains incomplete.
"So the president's policies have brought 50 percent of production into America, but we need the foundational products made here. Otherwise, you know, we're making the products here, but we need the supply chain here."
The polysilicon action received less attention than the immigration orders but follows the same logic: use executive authority aggressively where Congress has not acted, and dare opponents to challenge it in court.
Several critical questions hang over both immigration orders. The first order's use of "non-exhaustively" leaves open how many additional categories the administration plans to add, and whether future expansions will push past the boundaries the Supreme Court set in Barbara. The birth tourism order's enforcement mechanism is undefined: consular officers already evaluate visa applicants' stated purposes, and it is unclear what new tools or standards the State Department and DHS will use to identify women whose real intent is to give birth in the United States.
The specific minimum import price for polysilicon under the new proclamation has not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether Lutnick's claim that 50 percent of production has moved to the United States refers to global polysilicon output or a narrower subset.
Courts will have the next word on the immigration orders. The administration lost the first round at the Supreme Court and has returned with a tighter, more targeted approach. Whether that approach holds will determine whether the president's most ambitious immigration promise, ending automatic citizenship for children born to foreign nationals on American soil, survives his second term.
For decades, both parties talked about the birth tourism loophole and did nothing. Trump is the first president to sign an order shutting it down. The legal fight ahead will test whether executive action can finish what Congress never started.
