Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president's crackdown on immigration, with the White House taking particular aim at what it calls "birth tourism," in which pregnant foreigners travel to the United States to give birth.
After 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 are not legally binding. The court said Trump's earlier effort to restrict birthright citizenship was unconstitutional.
The administration argues the new directive does not fall within the limits of the Supreme Court ruling, allowing it to expand who would be considered ineligible for birthright citizenship, including those who would arrive for "birth tourism" purposes.
The categories, Trump's order said, "do not fall within the rule of birthright citizenship as announced by the Supreme Court".
"That practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned. What that means is that no one in the world is anymore allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose," White House aide Stephen Miller said at the signing ceremony in the Oval Office.
The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000 to 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.
The orders could also affect people born in US territories, should Congress enact a proposed law to end automatic citizenship there.
Trump's new orders are likely to be challenged in court.
"We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision," Trump said of the 6-3 vote.
"People are building businesses around it," he said.
"That's not the way it's supposed to work. It's a disgrace."
There are no official figures tallying the number of foreigners who come to the US for the explicit purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for their children, or the cost to taxpayers.
No US law outright bars birth tourism, but a federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump's first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining US citizenship for a newborn.
People who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes.
