Trump moves to curb birth tourism with new executive orders on citizenship

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday aimed at denying citizenship to children born in the US due to commercial 'birth tourism.' The orders also target children of some foreign diplomatic staff and potentially US territories. An earlier effort was rejected by the Supreme Court in June. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated 20,000-25,000 mothers came for birth tourism in 2016-2017.

President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday, August 6, 2026, aimed at denying citizenship to children born in the United States as a result of commercial 'birth tourism.' The orders also seek to deny birthright citizenship for children of some foreign diplomatic staff in the US and, potentially, in US territories in the future, according to an Axios report. Limiting birthright citizenship has been a top priority in the Republican president's crackdown on immigration. An earlier effort by Trump was rejected by the Supreme Court in June, prompting him to call upon Congress to act. 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. 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. The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000-25,000 mothers came to the US for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016-2017. There were 3.6 million births in the US in 2025.