President Trump signed two executive orders on August 6, 2026, targeting birthright citizenship as part of his broader make America great again immigration agenda, just five weeks after the Supreme Court struck down his earlier attempt to restrict the constitutional guarantee.
The orders focus on what the administration calls “birth tourism”—when pregnant foreigners travel to the U.S. specifically to give birth and secure citizenship for their children. One order directs federal authorities to prevent entry of birth tourists, while the second identifies categories of children the administration argues are ineligible for birthright citizenship under historical exceptions recognized by the Supreme Court.
The move comes after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. Barbara on June 30, 2026, which invalidated Trump’s first executive order on the subject. That original order, signed on his first day in office in January 2025, had sought to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented or temporarily present parents. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, emphasized that under the 14th Amendment, “children born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States” satisfy the citizenship clause and “are citizens at birth.”
Trump called the Supreme Court’s ruling “very unfortunate” and said the administration would pursue a narrower approach through the new executive orders. “That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned,” White House aide Stephen Miller said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in a 2020 analysis that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers came to the U.S. for birth tourism during a year-long period between 2016 and 2017. This represented a small fraction of the 3.6 million births recorded in the U.S. in 2025.
The new orders also restrict birthright citizenship for children born to foreign government employees and those classified as alien enemies. They could affect people born in U.S. territories if Congress enacts proposed legislation to end automatic citizenship there.
Legal experts predicted the orders will face court challenges. Reuters reported that legal experts said it was unclear what effect the executive orders might have given the Supreme Court’s June 30 ruling, while immigrant advocates called the action an attempt to evade the high court’s decision. The American Civil Liberties Union predicted the orders were “doomed to fail in court,” according to Reuters.
Deborah Fleischaker, a former Biden administration official now with UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, stated: “Just five weeks ago, the Supreme Court made clear that birthright citizenship is not subject to a president’s whims, it is a constitutional guarantee that has stood for more than 150 years. Today’s executive orders are nothing more than an attempt to get around that ruling.”
Sources
- The White House — fact sheet on the August 6, 2026 executive orders targeting birth tourism and birthright citizenship
- Reuters — reporting on Trump’s signing of two executive orders to limit birthright citizenship and legal expert analysis of their likely fate
- SCOTUSblog — analysis of the Supreme Court’s June 30, 2026 decision in Trump v. Barbara striking down Trump’s earlier birthright citizenship executive order
