Following the Supreme Court's rejection of the January 20, 2025 executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, President Trump has signed two new executive orders that once again attempt to undermine the protections guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. These unlawful actions revive the administration's ongoing effort to erode constitutional rights while advancing false and misleading narratives about immigrants and birthright citizenship. The content of the two orders is reviewed below.
Executive Order 14418: Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship
The purpose of this Executive Order is to carefully define the parents whose children are not automatically eligible to receive U.S. citizenship, even if born in the country, following the Supreme Court's ruling in Trump v. Barbara. The administration orders departments and agencies to deny U.S. citizenship to any person when both of their parents are noncitizens and any of the following applies:
- Either parent is recognized as an “alien enemy,” including a member of a Foreign Terrorist Organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist group.
- Either parent is a foreign government employee, including:
- Ambassadors,
- Embassy and consulate employees,
- Persons employed in any official capacity by a foreign government, and
- Employed by an international organization that possesses international-organization immunity.
- Either parent engaged in a commercial transaction or fraudulent activity to secure U.S. citizenship for their child, including a commercial transaction to ensure that the person’s mother is in the U.S. at the time of giving birth or hiring a surrogate.
- The person is born in a territory or territorial waters of the U.S. where citizenship is not granted automatically by federal law. This currently applies to people born in American Samoa.
Comments:
- This Executive Order is an effort to maintain the discussion around limiting birthright citizenship and belonging.
- The enumeration of parents whose situation excludes their children from being U.S. citizens includes the first category: alien enemies and members of foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorist groups.
- It is worth mentioning that there are no official lists of individuals who are members of these organizations.
Executive Order 14419
The purpose of the Executive Order is to curb “birth tourism.” There is no statistical evidence to back the claim that birth tourism is a relevant issue.
Birth tourism is defined as the entry of a foreign national into the U.S. – or the facilitation of such entry by another foreign national – on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on U.S. soil.
The Executive Order provides the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security the authority to:
- Prevent the entry into the U.S. or the granting of any visa or travel authorization to any foreign national seeking to enter the country for the purpose of birth tourism.
- Revoke the visa or travel authorization of any foreign national who enters or attempts to enter the country for the purpose of birth tourism and to permanently ban them from ever entering the country.
- Deny entry or remove any foreign national who previously engaged or plans to engage in birth tourism.
Comments:
- The definition of birth tourism here once more adopts the definition that was ruled unconstitutional in the prior Executive Order.
- Even though this Executive Order has few consequences, it lays the groundwork for imposing immigration consequences on individuals who become parents in the U.S. and did not have an immigrant visa.
- Litigation against this Executive Order should be expected.
