President Donald Trump issued two executive orders yesterday that aim to crack down on birth tourism and birthright citizenship. The orders represent Trump’s renewed effort to tackle these issues after the Supreme Court, in Trump v. Barbara, struck down a previous executive order denying citizenship to the children of transients and illegal aliens. Yesterday’s orders are more modestly and carefully crafted than the original Trump effort. Some of their provisions are fairly obviously within Trump’s powers; others will doubtless present contested legal questions. But whether or not the orders stand up entirely in court, they bear the hallmarks of lawyers having given real thought to the existing precedents.
The broader of the two orders, “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” seeks — as the White House fact sheet explains — to identify “certain categories of children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship consistent with historical exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court in Barbara.” In fact, it pushes the envelope of those categories.
Comments