Remember when Donald Trump was so fired up about ending birthright citizenship that he literally became the first sitting president to show up at Supreme Court oral arguments like a guy demanding to speak to the manager? Well, the Supreme Court told him no, multiple lower courts told him no, and the 14th Amendment basically laughed in his face. But if you think that stopped him, you clearly haven't been paying attention to how this man operates.
As Conservative Brief reported, rather than accepting defeat like a normal human, Trump went ahead and signed fresh executive orders on Thursday that take aim at something called "birth tourism." Because if you can't knock down the whole wall, you start chipping away at it with a very determined chisel.
The administration is basically arguing that while the court may have preserved the 14th Amendment, there are still some loopholes big enough to drive a presidential motorcade through. The new restrictions would cover four specific categories of future births. First up, kids born to foreign diplomatic employees working for other governments on U.S. soil. Second, children of individuals classified as alien enemies, including members of federally designated terrorist organizations. Third, people born in U.S. territories, but only if Congress changes the law, and a bill introduced last month to do exactly that has approximately zero chance of passing. That one would notably affect Puerto Rico. And fourth, babies born to mothers who deliberately and deceptively entered the country specifically to pop out an American citizen at a birth tourism facility.
The logic here is that if someone commits fraud to get into the country, then citizenship obtained through that fraud should be revocable. It is worth noting that U.S. law already prohibits obtaining a tourist visa for the primary purpose of giving birth on American soil. Immigration officials can also turn away pregnant foreign nationals if they suspect that is the plan. So basically, Trump signed orders reinforcing things that already exist, but with extra paperwork.
A second executive order tells the State Department and Homeland Security to cook up new regulations aimed at dismantling the birth tourism industry both domestically and abroad.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee is already poking around birth tourism operations and in May requested documents from a company literally called "Have My Baby in Miami." That is a real business name. Someone registered that with a straight face. The committee raised concerns about national security because many of these expectant mothers reportedly come from China and Russia, which apparently transforms baby delivery into a geopolitical chess move.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee published its own report on this topic back in 2022, and estimates suggest anywhere from a few thousand to tens of thousands of babies are born annually through birth tourism arrangements.
So to recap, the Supreme Court said no, Trump said "watch me," and somewhere out there a company called Have My Baby in Miami is sweating profusely.
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