Nigeria Faces Fresh Exposure As Trump Signs Orders To End Birth Tourism
Two executive orders signed at the White House on Thursday, August 6, 2026, have placed Nigerian travellers back at the centre of America’s tightening immigration architecture, barely five weeks after the United States Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s first attempt to redraw the boundaries of birthright citizenship.
The first order, titled “Continuing to Protect the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship”, identifies categories of children of foreign nationals the administration says fall outside birthright citizenship under historical exceptions recognised by the Supreme Court. The second, titled “Ending Birth Tourism”, delegates presidential authority under Section 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security, directing both to halt the practice.
Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office, Mr Trump said, “They’ve taken birthright citizenship and they’ve made a joke out of it,” adding, “We’re making adjustments because it’s very unfair.” He also said, “They’re building businesses around birthright citizenship. That’s not the way it was supposed to work. It’s a disgrace. They’re buying their way in, and we’re not going to let it happen.”
The order defines birth tourism as the entry of any foreign national into the United States on a nonimmigrant visa for the purpose of giving birth on American soil, or any effort by a foreign national to facilitate such entry. It states that operators “use deceptive advertisements and inducements to entice foreign nationals to travel to the United States for the purpose of giving birth on American soil”, and that they “coach their clients to misrepresent the purpose and duration of their travel to consular and border officials”.
Under Section 4, the two secretaries may deny visas or travel authorisation, revoke existing visas and permanently bar entry, remove foreign nationals who previously engaged in or plan to engage in birth tourism, and act against organisations facilitating the practice inside or outside the United States. Section 5 permits exemptions on humanitarian grounds or where entry is judged to be in the national interest.
The orders followed *Trump v. Barbara*, docket 25-365, argued on April 1, 2026 and decided on June 30, 2026. The Court affirmed 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Justice Brett Kavanaugh concurred in the judgment and dissented in part, leaving the constitutional question decided by a narrower 5 to 4 margin. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch each filed dissents.
Roberts wrote that children “born of parents unlawfully or temporarily present in the United States” satisfy both elements of the Citizenship Clause, concluding, “Under the Constitution, they are citizens at birth.” The ruling invalidated Executive Order 14160, signed on January 20, 2025, and rested on *United States v. Wong Kim Ark* (1898), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment applied to children born on American soil regardless of parental citizenship.
The Fourteenth Amendment provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” Existing exceptions cover children of accredited foreign diplomats, children of hostile occupying forces, births aboard foreign sovereign vessels, and births in American Samoa and Swains Island.
Cody Wofsy, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement, “The Supreme Court already decided this issue: Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the Constitution. No additional executive order can change the meaning of the Constitution.”
The Migration Policy Institute noted in a 2026 analysis that no official estimate exists for birth tourism births, though roughly 26,000 of the approximately 3.5 million annual births in the United States might fall into the category, under one per cent of the total. The institute also observed that travelling on a visa for the primary purpose of giving birth is already treated as fraud and grounds for visa restriction, following a State Department rule issued on January 24, 2020 covering B nonimmigrant applicants.
Nigeria’s exposure is documented in peer reviewed research rather than official statistics. A study conducted in Calgary, Canada found that 24.5 per cent of foreign women identified as having travelled abroad to give birth were Nigerian, while research at a Chicago hospital found 88 per cent of those seeking obstetric care in that setting were Nigerian citizens. Work published by Aduragbemi Banke-Thomas of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Olayinka Lewis of the University of Essex estimated that more than 23 per cent of pregnant Nigerian women would like to travel abroad to give birth, and noted that the phenomenon is described in Britain as the “Lagos Shuttle”. Figures circulating in some Nigerian outlets putting the annual number at 33,000 women remain unverified and are not drawn from any official register.
The underlying pressure is measurable. Global estimates place Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio at about 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, among the highest worldwide, with roughly 43 per cent of births attended by a skilled provider and about 39 per cent taking place in a health facility. Nigeria spends around four per cent of gross domestic product on health, well below the African Union target of 15 per cent.
Thursday’s action lands on a country already under multiple restrictions. The US Mission in Nigeria warned on July 28, 2025 through its official X handle, “Using your visa to travel for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States so that your child will have U.S. citizenship is not permitted. Consular officers will deny your visa application if they have reason to believe this is your intent.”
On July 8, 2025, the State Department cut most non immigrant, non diplomatic visas for Nigerians to single entry with three months validity. Presidential Proclamation 10998, signed on December 16, 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, placed Nigeria among 20 countries under partial suspension, covering immigrant visas as well as B, F, M and J categories, applying only to nationals outside the United States without a valid visa on that date. The State Department has since made its visa bond programme permanent, with bonds of up to $20,000 for B1/B2 applicants from 50 countries, including Nigeria and 29 other African states, payable through Form I-352 and Pay.gov after a consular officer’s instruction.
Washington has cited overstay data. Nigeria’s B1/B2 suspected in country overstay rate stood at 6.91 per cent in fiscal 2023, down from 20.96 per cent in fiscal 2022, with recent reporting citing 5.56 per cent for visitor visas and 11.90 per cent for student and exchange categories. The National Foundation for American Policy has argued that such rates are inflated because departures and status changes are recorded late.
The Nigerian government has previously disputed the reciprocity rationale. Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said Nigeria continued to issue five year multiple entry visas to American citizens. Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa said in 2025, “We are assessing the new policy and its necessary implications.”
Legal challenges are widely expected, and how consular officers in Abuja and Lagos will operationalise the new guidance remains unclear pending rules from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security.