WASHINGTON
\nPresident Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, once again challenging a provision of the US Constitution even though the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort. Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president\u2019s crackdown on immigration, with the White House taking particular aim at what it calls \u201cbirth tourism\u201d, in which pregnant foreigners travel to the US to give birth.
\nAfter his June 30 setback in the Supreme Court, Trump called on Congress to act, but on Thursday he opted for executive orders, which set policy but do not carry the same weight as laws passed by Congress. The Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional Trump\u2019s earlier executive order, which targeted a wide swath of immigrants in the country illegally or temporarily.
\nThe administration argues the new directive falls outside the purview of the Supreme Court ruling, as it seeks to reinterpret the narrow, historical exceptions to citizenship at birth and expand who is ineligible. \u201cThat practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned,\u201d White House aide Stephen Miller said at the Thursday signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
\nThe Centre for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016 and 2017. There were 3.6 million births in the US in 2025. The executive orders also limit the rights of children born to foreign government employees in the US and children of people who are classified as alien enemies.
\nThe orders could also affect people born in US territories, should Congress enact a proposed law to end automatic citizenship there. Trump\u2019s new orders are likely to face legal challenges. Legal experts said it was unclear what effect the executive orders might have given the Supreme Court ruling, while immigrant advocates called it an attempt to evade the high court\u2019s decision. The ACLU predicted it was doomed to fail in court.
\n\u201cJust five weeks ago, the Supreme Court made clear that birthright citizenship is not subject to a president\u2019s whims, it is a constitutional guarantee that has stood for more than 150 years. Today\u2019s executive orders are nothing more than an attempt to get around that ruling,\u201d said Deborah Fleischaker, a Biden administration official who is now with UnidosUS, a Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organisation.
\nZain Lakhani of the Women\u2019s Refugee Commission said the executive orders could trample the rights of pregnant women seeking lawful entry \u201cin one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives\u201d, and called on the government to establish guidelines honouring the Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, once again challenging a provision of the US Constitution even though the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort. Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president\u2019s crackdown on immigration, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n