Former President Donald Trump has announced a plan to address “citizenship tourism” if he secures a second term in office. In a video posted on social media, Trump outlined his intention to issue an executive order that would deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
“As part of my plan to secure the border on day one in my new term in office, I will sign an executive order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward, the future children of illegal immigrants will not receive automatic citizenship,” Trump declared.
Trump argued that policies like birthright citizenship incentivize illegal immigration. He believes his proposed executive order will address the immigration crisis and encourage undocumented immigrants to return to their home countries.
The former president claimed that the order would bring an end to “birth tourism,” where “hundreds of thousands of people from all over the planet squat in hotels for their last few weeks of pregnancy to illegitimately and illegally obtain US citizenship for the child, often to later exploit chain migration to jump the line.” Trump clarified that at least one parent would have to be a citizen or legal resident for their child to qualify for citizenship.
The proposed order, if implemented, would likely face pushback from critics who argue that the 14th Amendment grants citizenship to all individuals born within the US. The amendment was initially intended to grant citizenship to freed slaves but has expanded to apply to anyone born on American soil.
Trump’s proposal is a direct response to what he describes as President Biden’s policies enabling “mass amnesty” by creating easier pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Biden recently signed an executive order that would allow nearly 1.5 million undocumented immigrants to cross the border into the US each year.