WireAugust 6, 2026 at 8:31 PM
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President Trump signed two executive orders Thursday aimed at dismantling the commercial birth tourism industry and limiting birthright citizenship for specific categories of foreign nationals, the White House confirmed. The move represents a targeted follow-up to the administration’s broader, court-blocked effort to reinterpret the 14th Amendment.
The primary order establishes that U.S. citizenship will not be automatically conferred on children born in the future to mothers who "expressly and deceptively" enter the country for the sole purpose of giving birth, including through surrogacy arrangements at birth-tourism centers. The administration argues that such fraudulent misrepresentation on visa applications provides the legal basis to deny citizenship, drawing a parallel to the revocation of citizenship obtained through naturalization fraud.
A companion order directs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to issue new rules to disrupt the birth tourism industry domestically and abroad. U.S. law already prohibits granting tourist visas for the primary purpose of obtaining citizenship for a child, but enforcement has been lax. The order seeks to tighten visa adjudication and hold foreign facilitators accountable.
Federal estimates on the scale of birth tourism remain imprecise, ranging from the low thousands to tens of thousands of births annually. The House and Senate homeland security committees have identified operations largely catering to clients from China and Russia, raising concerns about national security vulnerabilities and the commodification of American citizenship. "The benefits of U.S. citizenship are a unique privilege," the House Oversight Committee stated in recent inquiries, "not a product to be sold to foreign nationals."
The administration is also expanding longstanding exceptions to birthright citizenship. One expansion covers children of non-diplomatic foreign government employees in the U.S., broadening the category beyond ambassadors' families. Another applies the "invading armies" exception to children of individuals designated as alien enemies, including members of federally listed terrorist organizations.
The orders apply only to future births and do not affect current citizens. A provision regarding births in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, would require separate congressional action to end automatic citizenship there—a legislative path currently unlikely to pass. Legal challenges are virtually certain, with opponents citing the 14th Amendment's guarantee of citizenship to those born on U.S. soil subject to its jurisdiction. The administration contends the Supreme Court's prior ruling against a broader order left these targeted, fraud-based exceptions intact.