President Donald Trump plans to sign two executive orders on Thursday designed to curb automatic U.S. citizenship for children born in the United States as a result of commercial "birth tourism," Axios reported.
The measures reportedly include provisions to block citizenship for newborns delivered as part of paid birth tourism arrangements. Axios also said the administration is seeking to deny birthright citizenship for children born to some foreign diplomatic staff while in the United States, and that such a limit could potentially be extended to births in U.S. territories in the future.
The White House itinerary listed a "signing time" event at the Oval Office on Thursday. At 3:55 pm (1955 GMT) the event had not yet begun, which was about 55 minutes after the time slot shown in the official schedule released by the White House.
Legal and regulatory background cited in reporting notes that no U.S. statute outright bans birth tourism. However, a federal regulation put into effect in 2020 during Trump’s first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a newborn. The reporting states that people who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes under existing rules.
There are no official figures that tally the number of foreigners who travel to the United States specifically to give birth or the cost such activity may impose on taxpayers. The Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates lower immigration levels, estimated in a 2020 analysis that between 20,000-25,000 mothers traveled to the United States for birth tourism during a one-year period between 2016 and 2017. The reporting also notes there were 3.6 million births in the United States in 2025.
The proposed executive actions and cited regulation focus on curbing what the administration describes as commercial schemes to obtain citizenship by birth. Enforcement, scope of application to diplomatic personnel and potential coverage of U.S. territories were presented in the reporting as planned elements of the initiative. The absence of comprehensive official data on the scale and fiscal impact of birth tourism was also highlighted.
Contextual note: Reporting indicates the steps are aimed at particular practices described as birth tourism and seeks to change how birthright citizenship is applied in targeted circumstances. The available details in the reporting include the White House schedule entry, the referenced 2020 regulation, the prosecution risk for participants in schemes, the Center for Immigration Studies estimate for 2016-2017, and the 2025 birth total. The reporting did not provide comprehensive enforcement details or official federal counts tied to birth tourism.