Washington, Aug. 7 (SANA) U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting foreign nationals who enter the United States on tourist visas with the intention of giving birth there and obtaining U.S. citizenship for their children, as his administration moves to further tighten immigration policies.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Trump as telling reporters at the White House that birthright citizenship had been made “a mockery,” arguing that some people enter the country ostensibly as tourists while intending to give birth in the United States.
“We’re making changes because it’s very unfair,” Trump said.
The latest measure follows an executive order Trump issued last year seeking to deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to parents who are either in the country illegally or staying under temporary visas.
Lower courts blocked that measure, citing the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which provides that people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are U.S. citizens.
The Supreme Court upheld those rulings in an opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by two other conservative-leaning justices and the court’s three liberal justices.
Trump’s efforts to restrict birthright citizenship are part of his broader immigration agenda, which includes seeking the removal of millions of undocumented immigrants and ending deportation protections granted to nationals of more than a dozen countries.
The 14th Amendment states that all people born or naturalized in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens of the United States.
F.J.
