"This was meant for slaves, not tourists": Trump defies Supreme Court ruling and signs orders against birthright citizenship
US President Donald Trump signed new executive orders to restrict birthright citizenship, defying the Supreme Court's June 30 ruling that rejected a previous attempt by a 6-3 vote. Trump argued that the 14th Amendment was intended for freed slaves and claimed that "hundreds of thousands" exploit birth tourism, but a University of Pennsylvania study found that less than 0.3% of births are related to tourists. The move is expected to spark a legal battle.
US President Donald Trump signed new executive orders aimed at restricting eligibility for automatic citizenship in the US, in defiance of the Supreme Court's June 30 ruling, which rejected by a 6-3 vote his previous attempt to deny birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants. At an event in the Oval Office, Trump called the ruling a "very, very unfortunate decision" and argued that the 14th Amendment, which grants automatic citizenship, was enacted immediately after the Civil War and was intended solely for babies of freed slaves. "What's happening now is that people are building businesses around this," he said. However, his statements contradict the facts: he claimed that "hundreds of thousands" exploit birth tourism and provided examples of men with 56 or 98 children, but a University of Pennsylvania study cited by the New York Times found that less than 0.3% of births in the US per year are related to tourists. Additionally, his claim that the amendment was approved "a week or two" after the war is inaccurate, as it was ratified more than three years after its end. The move is expected to spark further legal battles from human rights organizations.