Trump Orders Every Federal Agency to Deny Citizenship Documents to Four Categories of U.S.-Born Children

On Aug. 6, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order, “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” directing every executive department and agency to refuse to issue — and to refuse to accept from state, local or other governments — documents recognizing U.S. citizenship for people born in the United States when neither parent is a citizen and any of four conditions applies: a parent is an “alien enemy,” defined to include members of designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists; a parent is a foreign government employee, including ambassadors, embassy or consulate staff who are nationals of that country, and staff of international organizations with immunity; a parent engaged in a commercial transaction to purchase or access birthright citizenship, including paying to be present in the United States to give birth or contracting with a surrogate here; or the person was born in a U.S. territory or territorial waters where citizenship is not conferred by federal statute. The order cites the Supreme Court’s June 30, 2026, decision in Trump v. Barbara and says it identifies, “non-exhaustively,” categories of children outside the birthright rule the Court announced.

This is the administration’s second attempt to narrow the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause by executive action, after the Court struck down the January 2025 version. Rather than asserting a general rule, the order proceeds category by category and grounds each in the Court’s own language — shifting the dispute from whether a president may reinterpret the clause at all to whether these specific classes fall inside or outside what the Court held. Because the mechanism is the issuance and recognition of documents — passports, Social Security records, state-issued certificates — the practical burden would fall on people seeking proof of a citizenship status they already claim.

The Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, the Attorney General and the Commissioner of Social Security are directed to conform their regulations, and every agency must issue public implementation guidance within 30 days of Aug. 6. No court has ruled on the order.