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President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders that the White House says will restrict eligibility for birthright citizenship and ban so-called "birth tourism." The orders, signed Thursday, come just over a month after the US Supreme Court rejected Trump's first attempt to limit the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.

Coverage Comparison

ABC Australia reported that the orders aim to increase the number of people born in the United States who are ineligible for automatic citizenship, while The Guardian's reporting cast the move as an attempt to "undermine" birthright citizenship. TASS — English reported the signing of a single executive order banning "birth tourism," citing White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The Guardian's coverage emphasized that the Supreme Court had reaffirmed the right just five weeks prior, while ABC noted the earlier rejection in June.

All three outlets quoted or paraphrased the White House's claim that the orders would prevent "large numbers of people who wrongly would be getting birthright citizenship" from receiving the benefit, per TASS.

Key Claims

  • Trump signed two executive orders to restrict birthright citizenship and ban "birth tourism." This was reported by ABC Australia and The Guardian; TASS reported a single order.
  • The orders attempt to broaden the categories of children ineligible for automatic US citizenship, as reported by The Guardian.
  • The White House, via Stephen Miller, stated that those ineligible would 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 governments," per TASS.
  • The Supreme Court rejected Trump's earlier attempt to restrict birthright citizenship, according to ABC Australia and The Guardian.
  • Estimates of the scale of "birth tourism" vary. The Migration Policy Institute estimates 22,000 to 26,000 babies are born annually on US soil due to the practice, according to The Guardian. The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower immigration, estimated in 2020 that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016 and 2017, per ABC Australia.
  • Trump has been trying to end birthright citizenship for over a decade, as reported by The Guardian, citing his remarks at a 2015 Republican primary event and a 2018 televised interview.
  • Trump's father, Fred Trump, was born a US citizen to a non-citizen mother, according to The Guardian.

Perspectives

The White House, through Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, argued the order ensures that "large numbers of people who wrongly would be getting birthright citizenship will no longer be eligible for those benefits," as quoted by TASS.

The Guardian's reporting pointed to the Migration Policy Institute's assessment that the president's claim of "hundreds of thousands" practicing birth tourism appears "wildly inflated," noting the institute's estimate of 22,000 to 26,000 annual births and government data showing 9,600 births to mothers with foreign addresses in 2024.