Trump administration targets birthright citizenship, ‘birth tourism’ with new orders.
SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration has signed new executive orders aimed at limiting birthright citizenship and tightening restrictions around “birth tourism.” This comes after the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s earlier effort to end birthright citizenship.
“Unfortunately, we had a bad decision, very unfair decision. Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending it a different way,” said the President of the United States to press.
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One executive order seeks to limit automatic citizenship for a specific group.
“Mainly targeting children of foreign employees or employees who work for foreign governments like consulate embassy staff or foreign nationals who’s babies are born in the United States, Trump is trying to say well those children will not be U.S. citizens under the new order,” Immigration Attorney Habib Hasbini said.
The administration’s second executive order aims to clamp down on birth tourism. Stephen Miller, a senior advisor to Trump, said “if you’re telling a consular officer you’re here as a tourist but your true purpose and intent is to go to a baby mill and give birth and try to ment an American citizen while you’re here, then you’re committing a fraud against the American government.”
A Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson provided the following statement:
“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is aware of service-based operations, sometimes described as “concierge” models, that facilitate travel, housing, and logistics for foreign nationals seeking to give birth in the United States. While the act of giving birth in the United States is not unlawful, DHS remains focused on identifying and addressing potential violations of federal law associated with these activities.
“Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), in coordination with interagency partners, prioritizes cases involving organized facilitation networks where there is evidence of criminal activity. This may include, but is not limited to, visa fraud, misrepresentation, financial crimes, or other related offenses. Our efforts are directed at safeguarding the integrity of U.S. immigration systems and ensuring compliance with applicable laws.
“As a matter of policy, DHS does not comment on specific investigative techniques, ongoing investigations, or potential future actions.
“We remain committed to working with our partners to identify and address transnational criminal activity where it exists.”
Hasbini noted that since 2020, the Department of State has had the discretion to deny a tourist visa to anyone whose primary intent is to travel to the U.S. to give birth.
“If children born to those mothers they are suspected that they lied on their intent they had in their interview back then, before they got the visa they could deny those children the citizenship, this is the only new added caviance,” Hasbini said.
In further developments, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services may deny immigration benefits such as permanent residency if individuals do not submit all required initial documents. This new policy, effective August 5, allows denial without prior requests for evidence or notices of intent to deny.
USCIS SPOX Zach Kahler provided the following statement:
“U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has restored immigration officers’ authority, which already existed under regulation, to immediately deny immigration benefit requests that fail to follow instructions or fail to demonstrate eligibility for the benefit at the time of filing.”
Hasbini warned that this policy could have broad implications: “instead of giving you a chance to correct this error or to provide this missing document, they can simply just deny your case.”
Now, they must ensure all relevant documents are included at the time of filing to avoid denial.