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

President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders aimed at curbing "birth tourism," a practice where non-citizens travel to the U.S. to give birth and obtain citizenship for their children. These orders seek to deny citizenship to children born in the United States under these circumstances.

The new directives also extend to restricting birthright citizenship for children born to foreign diplomatic staff stationed in the U.S. and may eventually apply to U.S. territories. Limiting birthright citizenship has been a central focus of Trump's immigration policies. An earlier attempt to restrict this was previously rejected by the Supreme Court.

Official statistics on birth tourism are not available, but estimates from organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies suggest that between 20,000 and 25,000 mothers may have come to the U.S. for birth tourism in a single year between 2016 and 2017. The U.S. saw approximately 3.6 million births in 2025. A federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump's first term already prohibits using temporary tourist visas for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a newborn.