US President signs new orders to limit birthright citizenship
US President Donald Trump has signed two executive orders to crack down on birth tourism and limit the number of people eligible for birthright citizenship, weeks after the Supreme Court struck down his directive in this regard.
One order signed by Trump on Thursday targets people who engage in commercial “birth tourism” by seeking to deny them access to the country.
The other expands the definitions of people that it States are ineligible for birthright citizenship, such as children of foreign citizens who lobby on behalf of foreign governments. On June 30, the US Supreme Court struck down Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, reaffirming the more than 100-year-old understanding that nearly all of those born in the United States are citizens.
Talking to reporters at the Oval Office after signing the executive orders, Trump lashed out at the Supreme Court for its June 30 order and asserted that the fresh move was aimed at “making adjustments”. “We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright, it was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we’re making adjustments,” the president said.
He was flanked by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf.
Ratified on July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the US, including former slaves.
“This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what’s happening now? People are building businesses around it,” Trump said.
Miller, considered the architect of Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, said people come to the US pretending to be a tourist, but the real reason they’re here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen. “It gives them access, under this broken system, to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans,” Miller said.
