Around a month ago, the United States Supreme Court decided to rule against a planned change to the US Constitution, which would affect how citizenship is granted to those born in the country. As it stands, citizenship is a right for all new-borns in the US, even if the parents are tourists who are staying in the country for a limited time and happen to have their child during that time.
President Donald Trump has been working to adjust this for some time, likely mostly in an effort to curb illegal immigrants looking to secure citizenship for their children, but it's a process that hasn't been received with thunderous applause in each effort prior. But this isn't swaying Trump, who has now signed two executive orders to make a change.
As per BBC News, Trump's first order looks to expand the definition of non-citizens whose children are not eligible for US birthright citizenship, while the second then targets 'birth tourism', which we outlined in the first paragraph.
Speaking about the change, Trump explained: "This should have happened years ago, but we're taking care of it now. My Administration has guarded against the risks posed by malign foreign actors who attempt to swindle American citizens by taking advantage of the generosity of our Nation."
While these orders are coming into effect and will change how birthright citizenship operates to a degree, the previous Supreme Court ruling does still apply, meaning Trump cannot decide whether a child is eligible for US citizenship or not, even if he can impose greater restrictions on people travelling to the US for the purposes of having a child.
