Trump signs order directing State, DHS to crack down on 'birth tourism' using visa and entry powers

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing the State Department and Department of Homeland Security to use visa and entry authorities to crack down on what the administration calls “birth tourism,” shifting from earlier efforts to change birthright citizenship itself to a narrower enforcement approach aimed at travel and facilitators.

The White House-posted order, titled “Ending Birth Tourism” and signed “DONALD J. TRUMP,” tells the two agencies to block or revoke visas and travel authorizations, deny entry, remove people who engaged in or plan to engage in the practice, and take action against entities or individuals that facilitate it. By its text, the order does not itself purport to revoke the citizenship of children born in the United States. Instead, it works through the executive branch’s existing control over visas, admission and removal, and directs agencies to update rules, policies or guidance as needed.

“United States citizenship is among the greatest inheritances the Nation can bestow,” the order says. It frames birth tourism as an exploitative industry that, according to the order, uses deceptive advertising and coaches clients to misrepresent their travel purpose to consular officers and border officials.

The order defines birth tourism as “the entry of any foreign national into the United States via a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil” and also “any effort by any foreign national to facilitate” such entry. Nonimmigrant visas generally cover temporary travel categories such as tourism or business visits.

Trump delegated implementation to Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, citing presidential delegation authority and section 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the federal immigration law that governs entry and travel controls. The order says the secretaries may prevent entry or visa issuance to people seeking to come for birth tourism, revoke visas or travel authorizations and permanently bar entry, and deny admission or remove people who have engaged in or plan to engage in the practice.

It also reaches beyond individual travelers. The order says the agencies may act against entities, organizations or individuals inside or outside the United States that facilitate or enable birth tourism.

At the same time, it includes an exemption allowing State or DHS to admit or exempt a foreign national on humanitarian grounds or when entry is in the national interest, as determined by the relevant secretary.

The move comes after Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship in some circumstances was blocked in court, and the U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 rejected that executive-order approach. This new order takes a different path, focusing on the executive branch’s authority over visas and admission rather than directly trying to rewrite who is a citizen at birth.

The broader constitutional backdrop is the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which says people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens, and the Supreme Court’s longstanding interpretation in United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898 that most people born on U.S. soil are citizens at birth. The new order does not attempt, on its face, to alter that rule.

Contemporary reporting from The Associated Press and Axios said Trump signed two immigration-related actions on Thursday, including this separate birth-tourism order and another measure aimed at narrowing birthright citizenship in some circumstances.

Like most executive orders, this one includes legal-limits language saying it must be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations, and that it does not create an enforceable legal right or benefit.

The administration is also entering an area with an existing enforcement history. The Justice Department previously prosecuted birth-tourism schemes under fraud and immigration-related laws, including 2019 indictments in California and a 2022 sentencing in New York.