Can Trump Limit Birthright Citizenship? Legal Experts Doubt His Latest Effort

US President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to restrict birthright citizenship is facing significant legal obstacles, with constitutional experts telling Al Jazeera that the administration’s new executive orders are unlikely to survive court challenges.

The Trump administration has renewed its push against birthright citizenship, weeks after the US Supreme Court rejected his earlier, broader attempt to restrict automatic citizenship for children born in the United States.

Trump Targets “Birth Tourism”

Trump signed new executive orders on August 6 aimed particularly at so-called “birth tourism”, in which foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth with the expectation that their children will receive US citizenship.

The new measures also seek to restrict citizenship for certain children whose parents are foreign-government employees, are accused of immigration-related fraud or fall into other categories identified by the administration.

Trump has described birth tourism as a serious abuse of US immigration laws and has continued to argue that the government should be able to prevent automatic citizenship in such circumstances.

Why Legal Experts Are Skeptical

The central legal issue is the 14th Amendment, whose Citizenship Clause states that people born or naturalized in the United States and subject to US jurisdiction are citizens.

Legal experts argue that Trump’s executive orders face the same fundamental constitutional problem as his earlier attempt. Al Jazeera reported that constitutional law expert Kimberly Wehle believes the new orders are likely to be declared unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s June ruling also dealt a major blow to Trump’s original effort to restrict birthright citizenship. The administration’s latest strategy is narrower, but legal challenges are already underway.

ACLU Challenges the New Orders

The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups have asked a federal judge to block Trump’s latest orders.

The groups argue that the administration is attempting to circumvent the Supreme Court’s previous decision and that the president cannot unilaterally determine which categories of US-born children receive constitutional citizenship protections.

The White House, however, maintains that the new measures comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling and constitutional requirements.

The legal battle could ultimately force the Supreme Court to reconsider how far the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship guarantee extends.

For now, legal experts remain doubtful that Trump can substantially change birthright citizenship through executive action alone.