U.S. President Donald Trump looks on after disembarking Marine One, and before boarding Air Force One, en route to John F. Kennedy International Airport, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., August 14, 2026.
A self-described Libertarian is sounding the alarm that President Donald Trump's new effort to rewrite the 14th Amendment is "more bizarre" than most realize.
David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, walked through the specifics of the new executive orders that President Donald Trump signed to challenge
"The new birthright citizenship order is way more bizarre than anyone is saying," he wrote in a thread on X Friday. "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..."
"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," he continued.
It prompted him to pose the question: "Do they think they can take away people's citizenship?"
"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," he said.
The second point he noticed is that Trump deleted the same thing from his first order. It "means that this new order applies retroactively to pre-order births!" he said.
The key line reads that it "shall apply only to persons who are born within the United States after 30 days from the date of this order."
Third, Bier continued, Trump's order will apply if "either" one of the parents fits into the category as well as if both parents are noncitizens. The first order, he pointed out, gave options for the father's status being able to "save" the child's citizenship. If, for example, the mother had an H-1B visa and the father was a foreign bureaucrat visiting during the World Cup the child still couldn't be considered a citizen if their parent is a so-called "alien enemy."
"Trump also deleted the first order's clause protecting the children of lawful permanent residents. This means if you work for a foreign government as a Lawful Permanent Resident, your baby isn't a citizen.
Bier also pointed out how "incredibly vague" the language in the order is. So, while the order gets very specific about who it applies to, it doesn't even define what some of the categories mean.
There's also a caveat that requires children to know their parents' "intent" when they were giving birth, he pointed out. While conservatives are calling these folks "birth tourism" travelers, Bier explained that, according to these details, it includes Lawful Permanent Residents.
"If your parent was an immigrant visa holder who rushed to buy a plane ticket so you were born in the USA? Sorry!" said Bier.
He closed by calling the justification for Trump's new order "INSANE."
"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!" Bier wrote. "Remember, the only exception to birthright citizenship is for people not 'subject to the jurisdiction of the USA.' That's everyone except ambassadors, because everyone else has to follow US law. That's not just my interpretation."
"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 U.S. law, and of course, he's not actually going to give immunity to foreign terrorists and visa fraudsters. But 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," Bier said.