Trump Signs Orders To Limit US Birthright Citizenship, Despite Supreme Court Ruling

US President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday in a new but narrower attempt to curtail birthright citizenship, once again challenging a provision of the US Constitution even though the Supreme Court rejected his previous effort.

Limiting birthright citizenship has been one of the top priorities in the Republican president’s crackdown on immigration, with the ‌White House taking particular aim at what it calls “birth tourism,” in which pregnant foreigners travel to the US to give birth. After his June 30 setback in the Supreme Court, Trump called on Congress to act, but on Thursday he opted for executive orders, which set policy but do not carry the same weight as laws passed by Congress.

The Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional Trump’s earlier executive order, which targeted a wide swath of immigrants in the country illegally or temporarily. The administration argues the new directive falls outside the purview of the Supreme Court ruling, as it seeks to reinterpret the narrow, historical exceptions to citizenship at birth and expand who is ineligible.

Zain Lakhani of the Women’s Refugee Commission said the executive orders would trample the rights of pregnant women seeking lawful entry “in one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives,” and called on the government to establish guidelines honoring the Supreme Court ruling.