Trump signs new executive orders to rein in birthright citizenship

President Trump and Stephen Miller discuss two new birthright citizenship executive orders.

President Trump on Thursday signed a new executive order aimed at reining in birthright citizenship and curtailing a practice known as "birth tourism."

The White House said the two new orders Trump signed, in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning the order he signed in January 2025, protect "the value of American citizenship" and are geared toward "putting Americans first and restoring the immigration system."

Trump and deputy White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller spoke with reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday and explained the two orders. "I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court," Trump said. "Unfortunately we had a bad decision, very unfair decision." On birth tourism, Trump said, "It's become a big business — and we're ending it. They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it."

Miller said the first executive order is designed to make babies born on U.S. soil to non-citizens ineligible for citizenship if the parents are “alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments.” Babies born in the U.S. to foreign employees of foreign governments, including embassy workers, are among those who would be ineligible for citizenship, according to The Wall Street Journal. 

The second order empowers the State Department to enact policies that will make it more difficult for foreigners to travel to the U.S. with the specific objective of giving birth on U.S. soil. 

The Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision in June that Trump's earlier order had run afoul of the 14th Amendment's citizenship clause, which reads, "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The two new orders take a narrower approach to limiting birthright citizenship, but are also likely to face legal challenges.

Below, watch a clip of Trump and Miller introducing the two new orders.