On August 6, 2026, President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders aimed at restricting US birthright citizenship and stopping commercial “birth tourism.”
The first order, titled Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, instructs federal agencies to deny U.S. citizenship to four specific categories of children born on American soil. The second order, Ending Birth Tourism, focuses on punishing foreign families and business operators who commercialize births in the United States.
These actions arrive just five weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a broader birthright citizenship executive order (Executive Order 14160) in the case Trump v. Barbara, which affirmed that children born on U.S. soil are citizens under the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Four Targeted Categories
The new order applies only when neither parent is a U.S. citizen. Unlike previous proposals, this order includes children of permanent green card holders if neither parent holds full U.S. citizenship.
Under the order, citizenship will be withheld if either parent fits into one of four non-exhaustive categories:
- Alien Enemies: Members of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or global terrorists.
- Foreign Government Employees: Ambassadors, embassy/consulate staff, and foreign civil servants with diplomatic immunity.
- Commercial Transactions & Surrogacy: Parents who paid money to travel to the U.S. specifically to give birth, or paid a surrogate mother in the U.S. to do so.
- Specific Territories: Children born in U.S. territories or territorial waters where federal law does not automatically grant citizenship (such as American Samoa).
Paying as a Disqualifying Fact
The third category breaks completely new ground in U.S. immigration policy. The administration is treating commercial birth tourism payments and foreign surrogacy as citizenship fraud.
Instead of arguing whether the child is under U.S. legal jurisdiction, the order borrows the legal principle that naturalization obtained through deception or illegal payment can be revoked.
Cracking Down on Birth Tourism Networks
The second executive order grants the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broader enforcement powers to combat birth tourism networks.
Federal agencies can now:
- Refuse or revoke non-immigrant tourist visas.
- Impose permanent U.S. entry bans on parents who engage in birth tourism.
- Remove foreign nationals and prosecute commercial agencies operating inside or outside the U.S. that arrange birth trips.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 9,600 births in 2024 were to mothers listing foreign home addresses, out of 3.6 million total births nationwide. Independent groups estimate the annual number of birth tourism cases is between 22,000 and 26,000.
Legal Challenges and Expert Reactions
Immigration lawyers and policy experts have raised serious doubts about whether these new orders can survive in court.
“These executive orders are the immigration-policy equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound,” said Adam Juchniewicz, CEO of 21 CBI and a former DHS policy official. He noted that the federal government already has extensive legal tools to stop visa fraud and deny entry at borders without attempting to redefine the Fourteenth Amendment.
Legal organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), are expected to file constitutional lawsuits immediately. Federal agencies have 30 days (until early September 2026) to publish public implementation guidelines, setting up another major judicial showdown over the meaning of American citizenship.
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