What is birthright citizenship and how common is birth tourism in the US?

US President Donald Trump has announced enforcement orders aimed at ending alleged birth tourism and limiting birthright citizenship for certain groups. The move is part of a renewed effort by his administration to restrict access to US citizenship after the Supreme Court struck down his first attempt in June. **What are Trump's latest enforcement orders?** Trump signed two enforcement orders on Thursday. An enforcement order is a written directive issued by a president to federal agencies that does not require congressional approval. The first order expands the existing definitions of non‑citizens whose children are ineligible for birthright citizenship. It bars automatic citizenship for babies born in the US to two non‑citizen parents when one parent is a member of a foreign terrorist group, is a foreign government employee, has attempted to obtain citizenship through fraudulent means, or resides in a US territory where federal law does not grant citizenship. Several of these categories were already excluded under current rules, but the provision concerning membership in a foreign terrorist group could raise questions, according to Colleen Putzel‑Kavanaugh, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, an independent nonpartisan research group. She said it is difficult to determine how, when, and by whom such membership would be established, and it remains unclear whether the burden of proof lies with the government to show the individual is a member or with the individual to show they are not. The second order seeks to curb birth tourism by directing the Departments of State and Homeland Security to tighten regulations and increase enforcement against the practice. Traveling to the US for the purpose of giving birth is already illegal. The order states that operators in the birth tourism industry use deceptive advertising to lure foreign nationals to give birth in the United States. “They promise citizenship; access to federal benefits; and short‑term stays in specialized facilities, hotels, or rentals, but often fail to deliver on these promises,” the order says. **How does birthright citizenship work?** Birthright citizenship, known in legal terms as “jus soli” or “right of the soil,” is anchored in the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The amendment was originally intended to confer citizenship on American‑born, formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. Today, virtually anyone born on US soil receives US citizenship regardless of their parents’ immigration status, with a few narrow exceptions. Those exceptions include children born to foreign diplomats, children born to enemy forces during an occupation of US territory, and children born in unincorporated US territories where no federal statute grants the right to citizenship. Individuals born in the US territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands acquire automatic citizenship, whereas those born in unincorporated American Samoa are not citizens and are instead classified as “non‑citizen nationals.” **How many birth tourists are there in the US?** Trump claimed on Thursday that “hundreds of thousands” of babies have been born through birth tourism in the US, without supplying evidence or specifying whether the figure refers to an annual total. The government does not publish statistics specifically on women who enter the US on tourist visas to give birth, but data exist on foreign residents who give birth while in the country. According to the most recent estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, just over 9,500 babies were born to mothers with foreign addresses in 2024. This figure is based on births registered to mothers listing overseas residences. In the same year, the CDC recorded approximately 3.7 million total US births, meaning babies born to foreign‑resident mothers accounted for roughly 0.25 % of all births. The Migration Policy Institute contends that the official numbers likely undercount the phenomenon, noting that foreigners may use a US address that is not their permanent home to register a birth. The MPI estimates that between 20,0