Trump tries again: New birthright citizenship order after Supreme Court setback

Washington: President Donald Trump on Friday launched a fresh effort to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, signing two executive actions on immigration after the Supreme Court rejected his earlier attempt to limit automatic citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.

The new executive order is narrower than Trump's previous directive struck down by the Supreme Court. It seeks to limit automatic citizenship for children born to certain categories of parents, including those connected to foreign embassies or international organisations, individuals designated as "alien enemies," and people whose parents allegedly "engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship."

Trump also signed a second executive order targeting so-called "birth tourism" by tightening visa restrictions for foreign nationals travelling to the United States to give birth.

The president defended the move, saying he believed the latest actions would withstand constitutional scrutiny despite the Supreme Court's earlier ruling.

"I thought we were going to win it at the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, a very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it, and we're ending it a different way," Trump said.

The latest action follows the Supreme Court's June ruling rejecting Trump's previous attempt to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the U.S. to parents who were in the country illegally or temporarily. The court upheld the longstanding interpretation of birthright citizenship under the Constitution.

Birthright citizenship has become a central issue in Trump's second-term immigration agenda. The administration argues the policy encourages illegal immigration and exploitation of U.S. citizenship through practices such as birth tourism.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, obtaining a visa by misrepresenting the purpose of travel to secure U.S. citizenship for a child is already considered fraud under existing immigration law. Previous administrations have also prosecuted organised birth tourism schemes.

Immigration advocates and constitutional scholars, however, argue that the 14th Amendment clearly guarantees citizenship to nearly everyone born on U.S. soil and warn that restricting the policy would create unequal classes of citizens.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said it expects Trump's latest executive order to face the same legal outcome as the previous one.

"The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution. Any executive order that tries to rewrite birthright citizenship will meet the same fate as the last one," said Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project.

Trump first sought to end birthright citizenship on the opening day of his second term, prompting immediate legal challenges. Lower courts blocked the order before it took effect, and the Supreme Court later ruled against the administration, reaffirming broad constitutional protections for birthright citizenship.