President Donald Trump doesn’t take no for an answer, as he demonstrated yesterday with two new executive orders on birthright citizenship.

At the end of June, the Supreme Court ruled incorrectly in Trump v. Barbara that the 14th Amendment grants birthright citizenship to any newborn whose mother’s GPS coordinates are on U.S. soil, regardless of the status of the child’s parents or the circumstances of that birth. Illegal aliens? Citizens. Birth tourists? Citizens.

President Trump pushed back on that unconstitutional insanity. “We had a bad decision, very unfair decision,” he said in the Oval Office on Thursday. “Our country suffers because of it, and we’re ending it a different way.”

The order titled “Ending Birth Tourism” eloquently explains the value of American citizenship:

United States citizenship is among the greatest inheritances the Nation can bestow. It embodies a sacred bond between the American people and the Nation in which they live, and carries profound rights, privileges, and responsibilities reflective of the enduring allegiance of citizens to the United States and our Constitution. Citizenship is not a commodity to be acquired through calculated exploitation and evasion of the immigration laws, such as by entering the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth within the Nation’s borders.

The order explains how foreign nations exploit our foolish system to ensure foreign children can enjoy the privileges of voting adults and have none of the loyalty. Though it’s unnamed, Communist China is a notable offender.

“There is no official data on ‘birth tourism,’” scoffs The Washington Post. “In 2024, fewer than 10,000 babies were born in the U.S. to people with foreign addresses, out of 3.6 million total live births, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by the nonpartisan [read: left-wing] Migration Policy Institute.”

Well, if it’s only 10,000 annually, it must not be a problem. Is that the logic?

In any case, Trump’s order aims to address the problem by mandating tighter review of visa recipients. If the Supreme Court says any child born here is a citizen, the Trump administration will more tightly screen the mothers, either refusing to issue or revoking visas in certain cases. He’s not saying children born here aren’t citizens, as critics are already hyperventilating. He’s saying prospective moms can’t come here and give birth in the first place.

“The United States has a compelling interest in ensuring that each visa category is used only for the purpose for which it was established,” the order says. “It is therefore the policy of the United States to promote the integrity of its immigration system, to ensure that nonimmigrant visa classifications are used only for their lawful and intended purposes, and to prevent the exploitation of those classifications by persons engaging in birth tourism.”

White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller cited Section 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, saying, “Birth tourism is, by definition, a fraud on the American system, on the American taxpayer, on the American visa. If you’re … here as a tourist, but your true purpose and intent is to go to a baby mill, give birth, and try to mint an American citizen while you’re here, then you’re committing a fraud against the American government — and by definition that visa can, and should, and will be now denied.”

Again, the order doesn’t change anything about immigration law. It just says the administration will be very precise in enforcing it.

The other order is titled “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” and it deals with illegal aliens bearing children. Again, it does not change the law but rather relies on categorization of entrants — especially “alien enemy” (from a country hostile to ours) or any “person engaged in a commercial transaction” for the purpose of gaining citizenship, including surrogacy.

Remember when Joe Biden lost his student loan bribe at the Supreme Court and then circumvented the Court to do it anyway? Trump isn’t doing that (this time). He’s carefully defining U.S. immigration law in ways that will minimize the damage done by the Court and are better designed to withstand inevitable legal challenges. The next administration is free to undo these orders, but President Trump has made incredible progress keeping his campaign promise to secure the border — all without passing a new law like Biden insisted had to be done.

The ideal solution now is for Congress to pass legislation defining the 14th Amendment for the purposes of immigration policy. Congress doesn’t do hard stuff like that anymore, though, so the best we’re going to get anytime soon is President Trump’s orders.

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