The US State Department has proposed requiring parents and legal guardians to provide proof of their own citizenship or immigration status when applying for US passports for their children, in the latest move by President Donald Trump’s administration to restrict .
The draft guidance, reviewed by Reuters, offers the first detailed look at how the State Department could implement and expanding exceptions to automatic citizenship at birth.
The White House directed Reuters’ questions to the State Department. State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said the administration wants the passport adjudication process to reflect Trump’s position on protecting the “meaning and value of American citizenship.”
Parents could face new documentation requirements
Under the proposed guidance, parents applying for a passport for a child would have to provide evidence of their own citizenship or immigration status.
US citizen parents could be asked to submit documents such as a valid US passport or birth certificate. Non-citizen parents could provide evidence including an I-94 form or a lawful permanent resident card.
The information would be used to determine whether the child falls under the restrictions outlined in Trump’s executive order.
Currently, parents of US-born children generally need to establish their relationship to the child and provide photo identification during the passport application process. While applicants indicate whether they are US citizens, supporting documentation is not currently required simply to establish that status.
Trump’s latest order targets ‘birth tourism’
Trump’s August 6 executive order is narrower than his earlier attempt to restrict birthright citizenship. It specifically targets “”, in which women travel to the US to give birth so their children can obtain .
The latest directive would also deny citizenship to certain children if a parent works for a foreign government in the US, is involved in fraud or a commercial transaction aimed at obtaining citizenship, or is classified as an “alien enemy.”
The draft guidance states that the State Department would require parental information and evidence of parental citizenship or immigration status when determining whether an applicant is covered by the executive order.
Supreme Court previously blocked Trump’s citizenship order
Restricting birthright citizenship has been a major priority in Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
Trump’s earlier executive order sought to limit automatic citizenship at birth to children with at least one parent who was a US citizen or lawful permanent resident, commonly known as a green card holder.
The US Supreme Court ruled that order unlawful in a 6-3 decision, with the majority finding that it violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Trump’s latest order could also face legal challenges and has not yet taken effect.
Legal challenges already underway
Lawyers representing babies who could lose citizenship under Trump’s earlier order have asked two federal judges to block the latest directive.
One of the cases is before US District Judge Deborah Boardman in Maryland. At a hearing on Friday in Greenbelt, Boardman expressed skepticism about what she described as an unprecedented Trump order.
She allowed the plaintiffs to revise their lawsuit so she could consider whether to block the policy.
Justice Department lawyers have argued that issuing a restraining order would be inappropriate because federal agencies had not yet publicly issued guidance explaining how the directive would be implemented.
The State Department’s draft guidance could therefore become a key focus of the ongoing legal battle over the scope of birthright citizenship and the administration’s authority to restrict it.
