Will a Baby Born in the U.S. Today Still Be a Citizen After Trump’s Executive Orders?

President Donald Trump has launched a new effort to restrict birthright citizenship, but the executive orders target specific categories and apply only to future births. For most families, the current rule remains unchanged.

Yes. For the vast majority of babies born in the US today, birthright citizenship is still in effect. Trump’s two new executive orders seek to create specific exceptions after the US Supreme Court rejected his broader previous attempt to limit this constitutional right.

Why it matters: The new orders do not broadly eliminate automatic birthright citizenship for any baby born in the US, nor do they strip citizenship from children who already have it.

Trump Now Targets More Specific Birthright Citizenship Cases

Baby Born in the US Still a Citizen After Trump’s Executive Orders? – Photo: Shutterstock

According to Axios, the executive orders focus on future births involving four categories: certain employees of foreign governments, individuals classified as foreign enemies, certain births in US territories if Congress changes the law, and cases involving so-called “birth tourism.”

The term refers to foreign women who travel to the United States primarily to give birth so their child can obtain US citizenship.

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What changes: The administration is seeking to expand the situations in which it argues that a child born on US soil would not automatically qualify for birthright citizenship.

The White House maintains that these exceptions are consistent with the Supreme Court’s ruling and with the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the Fourteenth Amendment.

Children Already Born Do Not Lose Their Birthright Citizenship

Axios reports that the new executive orders apply only to future births, meaning they do not seek to revoke the citizenship of children already born in the United States.

In addition, the documents commonly used to prove citizenship remain valid.

According to USA.gov, a person born in the United States generally only needs a birth certificate to prove US citizenship.

For families: A child born in the US typically does not need to apply for a Certificate of Citizenship or Certificate of Naturalization. Those documents are generally used in other circumstances.

Supreme Court Maintained Limits on Trump’s Power

The new strategy follows the failure of Trump’s earlier effort.

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that sought to deny automatic birthright citizenship to certain children born to people without legal status or with temporary presence in the United States.

According to EFE and Axios, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected that broader policy in late June 2026, preserving the constitutional protection of birthright citizenship under the current interpretation.

The difference: Trump is no longer attempting to enforce the exact same prohibition. Instead, his administration is defending narrower exceptions that it argues are permitted under the Court’s ruling.

New Birthright Citizenship Orders Face Another Legal Battle

The dispute is far from over. Immigrant rights organizations argue that the president cannot create new exceptions to the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship through executive orders.

The ACLU has already signaled that it will challenge the new measures in court and maintains that birthright citizenship remains constitutionally protected.

What families should watch: Upcoming court rulings will determine whether these new exceptions can take effect and exactly which future births they could apply to.

For now, the executive orders have opened another legal battle over birthright citizenship, but they do not mean that babies born in the United States today have automatically lost the right to US citizenship, according to Axios, USA.gov, EFE, and The White House.