Overview
- The president signed two decrees on Thursday that the White House says will curb 'birth tourism' and change which noncitizen parents can confer U.S. citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.
- One decree aims to deny citizenship to children of people who obtain tourist visas or otherwise enter the country to give birth by alleging visa fraud or misuse of visitor status.
- The second decree broadens ineligibility to include children of people labeled as members of foreign terrorist groups, agents of foreign governments, or those who sought citizenship by fraud.
- The Justice Department said it will prioritize prosecutions tied to birth tourism and review visa processes to limit the practice, while the administration frames the steps as an enforcement response to the Supreme Court setback in late June.
- Independent analysts and data groups say birth tourism is a relatively small part of U.S. births (the Migration Policy Institute estimates roughly 22,000–26,000 annually) and predict many provisions will be challenged as inconsistent with the 14th Amendment.