President Donald Trump signed two new executive actions on immigration Thursday, August 6, pushing once more to reshape birthright citizenship policy after the Supreme Court struck down his first attempt just weeks ago. The moves put the administration on a collision course with the Constitution’s 14th Amendment and virtually guarantee another round of legal battles.
What the Actions Do
The first action seeks to reduce the number of people who automatically qualify for U.S. citizenship by birth on American soil. The second targets what the administration calls “birth tourism” — the practice of foreign nationals obtaining visas specifically to give birth in the United States, thereby securing citizenship for their children. The new order would tighten visa restrictions on visitors suspected of traveling to the country for that purpose.
The Constitutional Obstacle
The 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, extends citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States. That guarantee has stood for over 150 years, and the Supreme Court reaffirmed its force just this past June, voting 6-3 to strike down the executive order Trump signed on his first day back in office in January 2025. Lower courts had already blocked that order from taking effect before the high court weighed in, meaning Trump’s original citizenship directive never applied anywhere in the country.
Despite that decisive ruling, Trump told reporters he believed the new actions would survive constitutional scrutiny. “His latest actions would be constitutional,” he said, as first reported by NPR.
By the Numbers
6-3 — the Supreme Court margin that invalidated Trump’s previous birthright citizenship order in June 2026.
2 — executive actions signed Thursday targeting citizenship and birth tourism.
January 20, 2025 — the date Trump first signed an order targeting birthright citizenship, on his first day back in the White House.
14th Amendment — the constitutional provision at the center of the legal dispute, adopted in 1868.
The Broader Picture
The administration’s persistence on this issue signals that the White House views birthright citizenship reform as a long-term political and legal campaign rather than a fight decided by a single court loss. By splitting the approach — pairing a sweeping citizenship order with a narrower visa-restriction measure targeting birth tourism — the administration may be searching for a legal pathway the Court has not yet closed.
The birth tourism action may prove more durable. Courts have historically given the executive branch wide latitude over visa issuance and consular decisions, making restrictions on entry easier to defend than changes to citizenship status itself. The citizenship action, however, runs directly into the constitutional text the Supreme Court just relied on to shut down the first attempt.
Immigration enforcement has been a defining priority of Trump’s second term, touching everything from border security to the legal status of children born to visa holders. How courts treat these latest orders will likely shape the broader debate over how much authority Washington actually retains over the country’s most contested policy fights.
Category: Republic | Tags: Immigration, White House, Donald Trump, Supreme Court