U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders at the White House on the 6th (local time) that withhold U.S. citizenship from children of commercial birth tourism and foreign diplomats.

This measure will apply only to children born going forward and will not be applied retroactively to those who have already acquired citizenship. The executive orders primarily target not only children of foreign diplomatic mission personnel in the United States, but also babies born on U.S. soil and U.S. territories by individuals whom U.S. federal authorities have classified as members of terrorist organizations or hostile nations.

Currently, an estimated thousands to tens of thousands of birth tourism babies are born in the United States each year. The Trump administration has classified the practice of entering the country on tourist visas and obtaining citizenship for one's children as a loophole in the immigration system and an abuse of national security and public resources, and has pursued stronger regulations.

Under this measure, four types of activities related to the commercial birth tourism industry have been designated as priority targets for intensive crackdowns. The administration directed the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to strengthen visa screening and ordered the formulation of specific regulations to uncover domestic and international birth tourism brokerage networks and brokers.

However, since the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stipulates that citizenship be granted to those born on U.S. soil in principle, this measure is highly likely to spark legal controversy. In fact, the federal Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an executive order pursued by the Trump administration early last year that would have imposed a blanket ban on birthright citizenship, issuing its ruling on June 30. Therefore, this executive order is also expected to face lawsuits over whether it violates the Constitution.