President Donald Trump of the US has renewed his campaign to restrict birthright citizenship, signing a new order targeting foreigners who he says travel to the United States under the guise of tourism but actually intend to give birth there.
The move is part of Trump’s wider effort to tighten US immigration rules and could affect Nigerians and other foreign nationals who travel to the country to have their children.
“They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office.
Trump had previously signed an executive order seeking to deny automatic US citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally or on temporary visas. However, lower courts blocked the measure, citing the 14th Amendment, which states that people born or naturalised in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens.
The US Supreme Court later ruled against Trump’s previous effort in a late-June decision, which Trump described as “very unfortunate.”
“We’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair,” he said.
The 14th Amendment does not cover people who are not subject to US jurisdiction, such as children of foreign diplomats. US authorities can also already deny visas when they believe an applicant’s primary reason for travelling to the country is to give birth.
Trump’s latest move comes as part of his broader immigration crackdown, which includes plans to deport millions of undocumented migrants and remove deportation protections from nationals of more than a dozen countries.
