An executive order issued by President Donald Trump has raised concerns, as Right to Democracy, a nonprofit organization, believes it targets birthright citizenship in the territories.
Right to Democracy co-director Neil Weare said the president's order focuses on the question of citizenship for anyone born in a territory of the United States.
Trump signed two executive orders on August 6, the first "non-exhaustively identifies certain categories of children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship consistent with historical exceptions to birthright citizenship recognized by the Supreme Court in Barbara," The White House states.
The second, delegates presidential authorities to the Secretary of State and Secretary of Homeland Security and directs them to halt the practice of birth tourism, according to The White House.
The president issued the executive orders following the Supreme Court's decision in Trump v. Barbara, which denied the administration's attempt to deny birthright citizenship to children born in the states, and after legislation was introduced in Congress that would end birthright citizenship for children born to non-U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands starting Jan. 1, 2027.
"This troubling executive order expresses the view that citizenship in U.S. territories is 'conferred by Federal statute,' while drawing a clear distinction between 'the United States' and 'a territory of the United States.' This suggests and perhaps even invites Congress to move ahead with legislation such as the 'End Birthright Citizenship for Territories Act,'" Weare said.
He said the president's order is a "clear escalation" of what began as a "legal theory advanced by successive administrations ... claiming that the Constitution does not guarantee birthright citizenship in U.S. territories."
"Rather than accept the constitutional limits recognized by the court, this administration and some in Congress are looking to the territories as a constitutional back door—one made possible by the undemocratic legal framework governing them," Weare said.
Right to Democracy has already filed an amicus brief in the case involving Trump v. Barbara on behalf of 21 current and former elected officials and judges from the U.S. territories, arguing that neither Congress nor the president "may use the territorial relationship to evade the Citizenship Clause and unilaterally deny citizenship to people born in the territories."
The executive order is particularly concerning for the Northern Mariana Islands, where citizenship was negotiated as part of the Covenant establishing its political relations with the United States.
"The Covenant provides that certain fundamental terms—including birthright citizenship—cannot be changed without mutual consent. Any attempt to alter those guarantees unilaterally would disregard not only constitutional limits but also the commitments on which the relationship was founded," Right to Democracy said.