Trump signs new orders to restrict birthright citizenship after Supreme Court ruling

Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders on Thursday aimed at restricting the right of birthright citizenship despite the Supreme Court's recent ruling overturning his attempt to ban it.

At a White House ceremony, the president was flanked by Stephen Miller, the architect of his deportation program, as he unveiled two orders targeting birthright citizenship and “birth tourism”, which Republicans argue is a massive source of fraud.

The first will identify “certain categories of children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship”, which, according to an Axios report, will largely be used to restrict the children of foreign diplomatic staffers from being eligible for citizenship if they are born in the U.S.

Trump told reporters that he believed the orders were legal, despite the Court’s ruling. Miller used his moment in the spotlight to attack the concept of birthright citizenship and argue that it had never been the intent of the drafters of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

“As the president mentioned, the 14th Amendment was passed exclusively in the aftermath of the Civil War, so that to ensure that the children of slaves would be citizens. It had no other meaning and purpose outside of that, and that's been clear, obviously, since the day that it was passed,” said Miller. “This is not something that is even seriously contested by anybody.”