Trump To Shut Down Birth Tourism After SCOTUS Barbara Ruling

President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders to help rein in the birthplace citizenship crisis Thursday in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling that read automatic U.S. citizenship for illegal aliens into the Constitution.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that any random foreigner has the right to American citizenship simply by being born in the country. That decision declared unconstitutional a day-one executive order from Trump correctly interpreting the 14th Amendment to stop the practice. Notably, both the executive and legislative branches are constitutional entities with their own responsibilities to interpret the Constitution. The president is not required to follow unconstitutional edicts from the Supreme Court, but the orders are structured to maintain consistency with the court’s Barbara ruling.

“United States citizenship is among the greatest inheritances the Nation can bestow,” one of the orders states. “It embodies a sacred bond between the American people and the Nation in which they live, and carries profound rights, privileges, and responsibilities reflective of the enduring allegiance of citizens to the United States and our Constitution.”

The first order, “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” clarifies situations the president does not believe are covered by the high court’s ruling, including cases of children born to an “alien enemy,” such as the children of terrorists, namely those found to be members of a Foreign Terrorist Organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

It is unclear how large that class is, but the order addressing alien enemies eems to signal a move toward a much more effective way to designate that a child does not obtain American citizenship: declaring ineligible children being born to noncitizens deemed to be invaders.

As the Federalist reported, not only did the Supreme Court’s Barbara decision not address the question of children born to invaders, the court does not have the jurisdiction to block executive branch action repelling an invasion. As Iowa Solicitor General Eric Wesson noted, Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, have both declared an invasion at the southern border, which took place under the Biden administration and prior. Given that reality, those who flooded in and had children — anchor babies — acted as invaders and would have no right to citizenship for themselves or their children.

The new order also clarifies that the children of foreign government employees, like ambassadors and embassy workers, are not entitled to birthplace citizenship. Some diplomats have reportedly been obtaining citizenship for their children while they are posted to the United States.

Anyone engaged in a commercial enterprise to obtain American citizenship is also banned from being afforded the privilege, as is “the person … born in a territory or territorial waters of the United States where citizenship is not conferred by Federal statute.” American Samoa is the only territory in which children born to noncitizens are not conferred automatic U.S. citizenship.

The second order, “Ending Birth Tourism,” goes into more detail about the birth tourism industry.

“Citizenship is not a commodity to be acquired through calculated exploitation and evasion of the immigration laws, such as by entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth within the Nation’s borders,” it states. “Birth tourism operators use deceptive advertisements and inducements to entice foreign nationals to travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth on American soil. They promise citizenship; access to public benefits; and short-term stays in specialized facilities, hotels, or rentals, but often fail to deliver on these promises. These operators coach their clients to misrepresent the purpose and duration of their travel to consular and border officials to obtain visas authorizing entry into the United States.”

One major hub for birth tourism is the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory close to China where there are currently more births to Chinese nationals — all of whom obtain U.S. citizenship — than Americans. Those new “American citizens” then return to China and are raised there, but are fully free to come back to the U.S. as an adult and full-fledged citizen.

The order seeks to stop that practice, but also has a retroactive clause that would require the “denial of entry to, or removal of, any alien who previously engaged or plans to engage in birth tourism.”

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.