Trump Targets Birthright Citizenship With New Executive Orders

The president’s move escalates a long-standing immigration battle, following a failed attempt to challenge birthright citizenship that the Supreme Court rejected in June. While no federal law explicitly bans the practice, the new directives build upon a 2020 regulation that classified the use of tourist or business visas for the purpose of securing citizenship for a newborn as a violation of immigration policy. Officials may now pursue criminal fraud charges against those orchestrating or participating in these schemes.

Data on the scale of birth tourism remains elusive, complicating the political debate. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated that 20,000 to 25,000 mothers traveled to the U.S. specifically to give birth between 2016 and 2017. Against a backdrop of 3.6 million total births nationwide in 2025, these figures highlight a persistent gap between the administration's stated goals and the difficulty of quantifying the phenomenon's actual impact on public resources.