Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The Justice Department tells prosecutors to prioritize “birth tourism” cases the day the Supreme Court rules against Trump’s birthright-citizenship order
A June 30, 2026 memo from senior official Colin McDonald directs prosecutors to charge visitors who enter to give birth; Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the focus on July 1.
What happened
On June 30, 2026, the day the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 against Trump’s order limiting birthright citizenship, Justice Department official Colin McDonald sent an all-employee memo directing prosecutors to prioritize “birth tourism” cases. It told them to charge people who enter under “false pretenses” to give birth with visa fraud, money laundering, identity theft or wire fraud.
The memo told prosecutors to work with DHS, which had created a “Birth Tourism Initiative” in April. The department’s focus moved from a rule the courts had struck down to criminal enforcement against the people the order had aimed at, with no court’s permission needed to begin.
On July 1, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told reporters the department was “focusing our prosecutors and our law enforcement partners on birthing tourism,” which he called “a booming industry.” He pointed to visa and application rules as other levers to limit births by visitors.
Who benefited
The administration turned a constitutional defeat into a new enforcement program within a day. It kept citizenship by birth in the news as a fraud problem. Blanche, newly acting attorney general, got an early signature initiative.
Who wanted something
Blanche and Stephen Miller’s immigration policy operation in the White House had driven the original executive order and wanted an alternative once it fell. Prosecutors in the fraud division were directed, not asked, and DHS had already built its own Birth Tourism Initiative in April.
Who lost out
Pregnant foreign nationals traveling lawfully on visitor visas face visa denial, entry bars or prosecution on the basis of an officer’s judgment about their intent. Their U.S.-born children keep the citizenship the administration could not take, but their families can be penalized.
Why it matters
Birthright citizenship survived the Supreme Court, and the administration answered by going after the births it could reach through visas and fraud statutes. That is discretionary enforcement, which is far harder to challenge in court than a rule.
Sources Reuters (via Internazionale)MediaiteNews24 / AFPTravelPulseThe Guardian