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President Donald Trump is once again reminding everyone that immigration policy is not supposed to be a suggestion box.
On Thursday, Trump signed two executive orders targeting birth tourism and expanding the definition of who does not qualify for birthright citizenship.
The move comes after the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in June in Trump v. Barbara, which ruled that birthright citizenship is a right under the Constitution.
Trump was not exactly thrilled with the ruling.
“We had a very unfortunate decision in the Supreme Court concerning birthright. It was close, but a very, very unfortunate decision. So we’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair,” Trump said.
He also argued that the original purpose of birthright citizenship has little to do with the modern cottage industry that has developed around it.
“This was done for a different reason. This was done right after the Civil War. This was for the babies of slaves, and what’s happening now? People are building businesses around it,” he added.
The White House explained that the first executive order identifies, among other categories, certain children of aliens who are not entitled to birthright citizenship, consistent with historical exceptions recognized by the Supreme Court in Barbara.
The second order delegates presidential authority to the secretaries of State and Homeland Security and directs them to shut down the practice of birth tourism.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and a frequent source of nightmares for immigration activists, said the order ending birth tourism falls within the president’s authority under Section 215A of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“This has been something that people have talked about not only for years but for decades,” Miller said.
Apparently, it was finally time to do something about it.
“The idea that people come here pretending to be a tourist, pretending to be a visitor, saying they want to go to Disneyland, they want to go visit a monument or go to a national park, but the real reason they’re here is to have a child, to make that child an automatic citizen, leave our country, and then have a U.S. citizen child,” he continued.
“It gives them access under this broken system to welfare benefits, ultimately to the voting booth, and all the other rights and privileges that belong solely to Americans. So that practice of birth tourism is, as of the signing of this order, hereby banned,” he added. “And what that means is that no one in the world is any more allowed to obtain a visa for this fraudulent purpose.”
Miller called the action one of Trump’s most important immigration moves.
“I would put this in the top three in terms of importance because it ends what has been one of the gravest and most egregious abuses of the American system, and it keeps American citizenship sacred,” he said.
The other executive order takes aim at broader categories of children of aliens who would not qualify for birthright citizenship.
“That includes, for example, alien enemies of the United States, members of foreign terrorist organizations, and large categories of people who lobby and act on behalf of foreign governments,” Miller said.
“And so, with taking this action, it ensures that large numbers of people who wrongly would be getting birthright citizenship will no longer be eligible for those benefits,” he added.
Trump also signed a proclamation establishing a minimum import price program for polysilicon and polysilicon derivative imports, an effort aimed at protecting American producers. The administration said the move also imposes a 15 percent tariff on derivative products to encourage these industries to move their operations to the United States.
“This is a series of trade and tariff actions under Section 232, intended to ensure that domestic polysilicon manufacturing is properly supported and protected from overseas dumping and offshore threats,” White House staff secretary Will Scharf said.
Polysilicon may not exactly be the stuff of campaign rallies, but it is critical to producing the silicon wafers used in computer chips, including those powering the artificial intelligence boom.
“So the president’s policies have brought 50 percent of production into America, but we need the foundational products made here. Otherwise, you know, we’re making the products here, but we need the supply chain here,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said.
In other words, making the fancy stuff in America while importing the ingredients from overseas is apparently not quite the industrial renaissance anyone had in mind.
Trump’s latest actions put both immigration and domestic manufacturing back where his administration apparently believes they belong: at the center of the America First agenda.
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