By Ghazali Ibrahim
United States President Donald Trump has signed two new executive orders aimed at restricting birthright citizenship, renewing an effort that was recently blocked by the US Supreme Court.
The orders, signed on Thursday, seek to tighten the rules governing who qualifies for automatic US citizenship at birth and crack down on what the administration describes as “birth tourism.”
One of the executive orders broadens the categories of non-citizens whose children would no longer be eligible for birthright citizenship.
According to the administration, the measure targets children born in the United States to certain legal foreign residents, including diplomats and employees of international organisations.
The second executive order is aimed at ending birth tourism, the practice of foreign nationals travelling to the United States on temporary visas to give birth so their children automatically acquire US citizenship.
Under the directive, the US Secretary of State is authorised to take enforcement measures against individuals involved in facilitating birth tourism, including imposing permanent entry bans on offenders.
“This should have happened years ago, but we’re taking care of it now,” Trump said while signing the orders.
The latest move comes just weeks after the Supreme Court of the United States struck down an earlier executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship.
