"It was meant for slaves, not for tourists": Donald Trump ignores Supreme Court ruling and signs executive orders against birthright citizenship

A few weeks after the US Supreme Court rejected his previous efforts, US President Donald Trump signed two new executive orders yesterday (Thursday). Their goal is to limit the number of those eligible for American citizenship by birth and to intensify the fight against the phenomenon of "birth tourism," where women come to the United States to give birth and grant their children automatic citizenship.

The current move follows the Supreme Court ruling from June 30, in which the president's attempt to deny birthright citizenship to children of illegal immigrants was rejected by a majority of 6 to 3. At an event in the Oval Office, Donald Trump called the ruling a "very, very unfortunate decision." According to him, the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which grants automatic citizenship, was enacted immediately after the Civil War and was intended solely for the babies of freed slaves.

"What's happening now is that people are building businesses around it," the president said.

According to the report in the "New York Times," the new orders are now directed against specific groups, including children of foreign government employees serving in the US, and infants of mothers who lied about their visit intentions. White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf noted that the administration is considering measures such as denying visas to visitors suspected that their sole purpose is to give birth in the US. Donald Trump's senior advisor, Stephen Miller, also defended the move and described it as an "important correction" to the current system.

However, Donald Trump's statements sometimes contradict the facts. When asked about the scale of the phenomenon, the president claimed that "hundreds of thousands" exploit birth tourism, and even provided strange examples of men who arrived with 56 or 98 children. However, as noted in the "New York Times," a University of Pennsylvania study published recently found that less than 0.3% of all births in the US per year are related to tourists. In addition, contrary to the president's claim that the 14th Amendment was approved "a week or two" after the end of the Civil War, historically it was actually ratified more than three years after the end of the war.

A source in the Department of Homeland Security cooled the enthusiasm around the move, claiming anonymously that the orders do not innovate anything in terms of enforcement, and mainly recycle existing laws. At the same time, human rights organizations are preparing for a struggle. Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the Immigrants' Rights Project at the ACLU, clarified that the court has already had its say on the matter: