President Donald Trump has signed two new executive orders targeting birthright citizenship and so-called birth tourism, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling rejecting his broader attempt to restrict citizenship at birth.
WASHINGTON, US — WEB DESK: US President Donald Trump has signed two new executive orders aimed at restricting aspects of birthright citizenship and targeting so-called birth tourism, weeks after the US Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt to broadly limit automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.
The new orders represent Trump’s latest effort to pursue his immigration agenda after the Supreme Court ruled on June 30 that his earlier order conflicted with the 14th Amendment, which broadly guarantees citizenship to people born in the United States.
New orders target specific categories
According to reports, one of the new executive orders seeks to deny automatic citizenship to children whose parents fall into certain categories, including some foreign government employees, foreign agents and people classified under specific national-security provisions. It also targets arrangements involving the commercial purchase of access to US birthright citizenship.
The second order focuses on birth tourism, directing federal agencies to take tougher action against people suspected of travelling to the United States primarily to give birth and obtain citizenship for their children.
The White House argues that the new measures address narrower circumstances that it believes were not fully resolved by the Supreme Court’s ruling.
Supreme Court previously rejected broader restrictions
Trump’s earlier executive order sought to deny US citizenship to children born to parents who were undocumented or temporarily present in the country.
The Supreme Court rejected that effort in a 6-3 decision, with the justices affirming the longstanding constitutional understanding of birthright citizenship.
The ruling was a significant setback for Trump’s immigration agenda and prevented his administration from implementing the broader restrictions contained in the original order.
Legal challenges expected
The latest orders are likely to face new legal challenges from civil rights organizations, immigration advocates and other opponents.
Critics argue that the administration cannot use executive orders to substantially redefine constitutional citizenship protections. Supporters of Trump’s policy maintain that the president has authority to address specific exceptions and prevent what they describe as exploitation of US citizenship laws.
The new measures are therefore expected to trigger another legal battle over the scope of presidential authority, the 14th Amendment and the limits of executive power on immigration.
The dispute could ultimately return to federal courts and potentially the Supreme Court as Trump’s administration continues its broader campaign to tighten US immigration policy.
