U.S. President Donald Trump dances during the 2026 Patriot Games final at SPIRE Academy in Geneva, Ohio, U.S., August 11, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
An immigrant expert on Friday flagged an unusual detail in President Donald Trump's new birthright citizenship order.
David J. Bier, Cato Institute Director of Immigration Studies, argued in a lengthy X thread that the order has unprecedented consequences for citizenship.
"The new birthright citizenship order is way more bizarre than anyone is saying. 1) The text requires agencies to deny CURRENT US CITIZENS citizenship docs if either parent 'IS' an alien enemy, foreign govt employee, regardless of their status at birth," Bier wrote on X.
Trump lost his birthright citizenship case in June when the Supreme Court voted to uphold the law and reject the president's executive order. He signed two new executive orders on Aug. 6, claiming he wanted to crack down on "birth tourism" and narrow the terms around U.S. citizenship.
"Contrast with the first birthright order: they **deleted** the timing phrase to open the citizenship claims of current US citizens whose parents did not even fall into the excluded category at birth. Do they think they can take away people's citizenship?" Bier wrote.
"Strangely, this means that the order doesn't apply to kids of parents who fell into the category at birth, but don't when the kid requests a passport. 2) Trump also deleted this from the 1st order, which means that this new order applies retroactively to pre-order births!" Bier explained.
Bier described why this was so strange — that the president cannot determine who gets to be a citizen.
"The justification for all this is INSANE," Bier wrote. "He's saying he can deem whoever he wants to be 'outside of the USA.' The extraterritorial fiction means that these people wouldn't be subject to US law. No, the president can't just decide that certain people are outside of US law!"
Trump also cannot bypass U.S. law when it comes to citizenship for children of diplomats.
"So we have this bizarre, incoherent order backed up by the most insane legal theory imaginable. No, President Trump can't decide that people aren't subject to US law, and of course, he's not actually going to give immunity to foreign terrorists and visa fraudsters," Bier wrote.
Trump could consider one exemption, Bier added. "He might give out immunity cards to anyone who gives him $1 million.... remember 'not subject to US jurisdiction' here applies even to state and local laws."