Trump signs new orders targeting birthright citizenship

President Donald Trump launched his second attempt Thursday at restricting automatic birthright citizenship through two new executive orders. One order would outlaw what the administration called birth tourism, while the other would broaden the categories of children who are ineligible for automatic citizenship. The orders follow Trump’s more sweeping attempt at limiting birthright citizenship, which was rejected by the Supreme Court earlier this summer.

The high court’s ruling was very unfortunate and has caused the country to suffer, Trump said at a news conference Thursday evening. The latest orders make adjustments in an effort to work around the Supreme Court’s ruling that birthright citizenship was constitutionally protected.

Trump’s actions will likely face legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union called the latest orders another unconstitutional attempt to undo birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court already decided the issue, the legal organization said.

What exactly do the new orders do? The first order called for DHS and the Secretary of State to restrict visitors who seek to obtain visas to give birth while in the United States. Trump said that hundreds of thousands of people have taken advantage of birth tourism, and some have even built businesses around it.

An estimated 26,000 babies might fall into the birth tourism category each year, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Overall, 3.5 million babies are born annually in the United States.

The second order restricted automatic citizenship to children born to adults with connections to foreign embassies or organizations, and anyone considered an alien enemy of the United States. It also restricted citizenship for anyone whose parents engaged in fraudulent activity to obtain citizenship. The order was aimed at children of members of foreign terrorist organizations, or those who act on behalf of foreign governments, according to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff.

Dig deeper: Read Josh Schumacher’s report for Roundups as critics of birthright citizenship detail potential workarounds to the Supreme Court’s ruling.