Trump Signs Orders Seeking to Restrict Birthright Citizenship and End Birth Tourism

President Donald Trump is seeking to further restrict birthright citizenship in the United States, weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his administration's previous attempt to broadly implement the policy, Grace Eliza Goodwin reported for BBC News.

President Donald Trump signs executive orders as his administration seeks to restrict birthright citizenship and curb birth tourism in the United States.

Trump signed two executive orders. One seeks to expand the categories of noncitizens whose U.S.-born children would not automatically receive citizenship.

The other targets so-called birth tourism, in which pregnant women travel to the United States to give birth, with citizenship for their children among the potential motivations.

Under the first order, the administration seeks to deny automatic citizenship to certain children born in the United States to two noncitizen parents when one parent is a member of a foreign terrorist organization, an employee of a foreign government, or has attempted to obtain U.S. citizenship through fraudulent means.

Birthright citizenship for people born in U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico is also addressed by federal law.

Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly criticized birth tourism, including claims that foreign nationals from countries such as Russia and China have sought to exploit the U.S. birthright-citizenship system.

Announcing the orders in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of babies had been born through birth tourism in the United States.

The orders are expected to face legal challenges.