President Trump hits back at SCOTUS ruling on birthright citizenship with two key EOs

The president has voiced his disagreement with the practice of birth tourism in the United States. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court disagreed with the president’s stance and ruled against him in June. Now, his administration is taking action.

Analysis by Summer Lane | August 7, 2026

President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders this week that directly address his administration’s disagreement with a recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The first EO signed on Thursday “non-exhaustively identifies certain categories of children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship consistent with historical exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court in Barbara.”

For context: in June, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Trump v. Barbara, reaffirming birthright citizenship. This means that a child born to illegally present, or simply visiting, foreign parents in the United States has a right to automatic U.S. citizenship. This decision was based upon the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause.

The president’s first EO categorizes specific classes of non-citizen parents whose children do not qualify for citizenship, based on the exceptions presented in the Supreme Court ruling, referencing historic precedent, for example, outlined in English common law: “The rule’s exceptions were narrow: children born in lands the sovereign did not control, children born in areas temporarily outside the sovereign’s control, and children of foreign ministers.”

The EO is focused on restricting citizenship to those who are children of “an alien enemy” or any designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the children of foreign government employees, ambassadors, foreign parents involved in commercial transactions with surrogates in the U.S., and those born in the territorial waters of the U.S.

The second executive order signed by President Trump delegates presidential authorities to the Secretary of State (Marco Rubio) and the Secretary of Homeland Security (Markwayne Mullin) and directs them to “halt the practice of birth tourism.”

Birth tourism is the act in which foreign parents come to the United States purely to ensure their child is born on U.S. soil, to claim automatic citizenship for that child.

Chinese nationals, for example, are no strangers to exploiting this system. According to concerns by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), CCP-affiliated surrogacy agencies are believed to be operating in the United States.

Consider the senators’ letter to former Attorney General Pam Bondi on the issue:

“Recent reports have uncovered more than 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies operating in Southern California alone. These agencies cater almost exclusively to wealthy Chinese clients, and some are affiliated with Chinese state-owned entities. Chinese nationals pay women living in the United States more than $50,000 to serve as surrogates. The children are born on United States soil and granted automatic citizenship. And in most cases, the infants are promptly flown to China and raised there under the direct influence of the Chinese Communist Party.”

This issue should concern everyone, and it’s to the credit of the Trump administration that they recognize the national security issue at stake here.

“We had a very unfortunate decision at the Supreme Court concerning birthright [citizenship],” President Trump told the press this week, upon signing these two orders.

He continued, “It was close, but…a very, very unfortunate decision. So, we’re making adjustments, because it’s very unfair.”

The president argued that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause was implemented after the Civil War, with one narrow purpose: to grant citizenship to the babies of freed slaves.

“What’s happening now, are people are building businesses around it – wealthy people are building businesses around birthright citizenship. That’s not the way we’re supposed to work,” he added. “It’s a disgrace. They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.”

Stephen Miller, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, told the press on Thursday that the president’s actions would “keep American citizenship sacred.”

Realistically, the administration’s attempt to work around the ruling on birthright citizenship from the Supreme Court is clever: by designating countries as an “alien enemy” or by linking a foreigner to an “FTO,” authorities can attempt to stop birth tourism.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies, birth tourism is especially practiced by foreigners who hail from China, Nigeria, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, Russia, and Taiwan.

It seems likely that President Trump’s newest executive orders on this issue will face legal challenges from political opponents. When asked whether it would “pass Constitutional muster” by a reporter this week, the president replied, “I think it will.”