Trump targets birth tourism in citizenship order

US President Donald Trump signed an order Thursday targeting people who he said enter the United States as tourists while intending to give birth, making another attempt to curb birthright citizenship after a Supreme Court setback.

“They've taken birthright citizenship and they've made a joke out of it,” Trump told journalists in the Oval Office. He said the administration was “making adjustments” because the current situation was “very unfair.”

Stephen Miller, one of Trump's closest advisers, said the order also aims to deny birthright citizenship to others, including children of members of “foreign terrorist organizations” and “large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments.” Miller said the move would make large numbers of people no longer eligible for birthright citizenship benefits.

Trump signed an executive order last year saying children born to parents in the United States illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become US citizens. Lower courts blocked that move, citing the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment, under which nearly everyone born on US soil is an American citizen.

The Supreme Court struck down the previous effort in late June. Trump described that ruling as “very unfortunate.”

The 14th Amendment says all people born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, are US citizens. The rule does not apply to children of foreign diplomats, for example.

Under existing US law, visas can already be denied if a consular officer believes an applicant is travelling to the United States for the primary purpose of giving birth.

Trump's effort to restrict birthright citizenship is part of a wider immigration campaign that includes deportations of undocumented migrants and the removal of deportation protections from nationals of more than a dozen countries.