US President Donald Trump has renewed his efforts to restrict birthright citizenship, signing an executive order targeting foreign nationals who allegedly enter the country as tourists with the intention of giving birth.
“They’ve taken birthright citizenship, and they’ve made a joke out of it,” Trump told journalists at the Oval Office on Thursday.
The latest move follows a US Supreme Court ruling in late June that blocked Trump’s previous attempt to restrict the constitutionally protected right. Trump described the ruling as “very unfortunate” and said his administration was making adjustments to its approach.
Trump’s senior adviser, Stephen Miller, said the new order would also seek to deny birthright citizenship to children of members of “foreign terrorist organisations” and certain people who lobby or act on behalf of foreign governments.
Miller said the order was intended to prevent people who, in the administration’s view, would otherwise improperly obtain birthright citizenship from receiving the benefit.
Trump issued an executive order last year seeking to deny automatic US citizenship to children born to parents who were either in the country illegally or on temporary visas.
Lower courts blocked the order, ruling that the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment generally grants citizenship to people born on US soil.
The Supreme Court later upheld the lower courts’ position in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts and supported by two conservative-leaning justices and the court’s three liberal justices.
The 14th Amendment states that people “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are US citizens.
The provision has exceptions, including children of foreign diplomats who are not considered subject to US jurisdiction. US immigration rules also allow visa applications to be denied when officials believe an applicant’s primary purpose for travelling to the country is to give birth.
The Trump administration had argued that the 14th Amendment, adopted after the American Civil War, was intended to address the citizenship rights of formerly enslaved people and did not extend automatically to children of undocumented migrants or temporary visitors.
Trump’s previous executive order was based on the administration’s interpretation that people in the US illegally or on temporary visas were not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country and therefore should not qualify for automatic citizenship.
The latest action forms part of Trump’s broader immigration agenda, which includes efforts to deport undocumented migrants and end certain deportation protections for nationals of several countries.
