U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday, August 6, expanding the definition of who falls outside birthright citizenship and prohibiting so-called birth tourism. According to Aristegui Noticias, the White House framed the measures as a refinement of the right enshrined in the 14th Amendment, just over a month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an earlier version.
The first order limits automatic birthright citizenship to three scenarios: children of individuals affiliated with foreign embassies or organizations, children of those deemed foreign enemies, and minors whose parents engaged in fraudulent activities to obtain that citizenship. The second tightens immigration controls by imposing stricter visa restrictions on visitors seeking to enter the country to give birth, according to La Jornada. For the binational Latino community, the change directly affects cross-border families who have traveled to the United States with the expectation that their children would be born with U.S. citizenship.
No U.S. law expressly prohibits birth tourism, but a federal regulation in force since 2020, from Trump's first term, already barred the use of tourist and business visas for the purpose of obtaining citizenship for a newborn. Those who participate in birth tourism schemes may face charges of fraud or related offenses. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated in a 2020 analysis that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers traveled to the United States for birth tourism over a one-year period between 2016 and 2017. In 2025, 3.6 million births were recorded in the country, according to Reuters data cited by Aristegui Noticias.
The new measures will be tested in court: the Supreme Court struck down a broader version of the same effort in June. For binational families, visa requirements and implementation timelines will be the next data points to watch.
This article was written with artificial intelligence assistance based on verified sources and reviewed by a human editor before publication.