According to draft guidance, parents or legal guardians applying for passports for minors could be required to submit documents including a valid U.S. passport, birth certificate, I-94 form or permanent resident card.
The State Department said the documents would be used to determine whether a child qualifies for U.S. citizenship under President Donald Trump’s August 6 executive order.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott defended the proposed measure, saying: “President Trump has been unequivocal that this administration will protect the meaning and value of American citizenship, full stop, and that includes making sure our passport adjudication process fully reflects that standard.”
The proposed guidance is linked to Trump’s executive order targeting what his administration describes as “birth tourism”, where foreign nationals travel to the United States to give birth in an effort to secure U.S. citizenship for their children.
Trump’s earlier attempt to broadly restrict birthright citizenship was rejected by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the measure violated the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment.
His August 6 order is narrower and targets specific categories, including children with parents who work for foreign governments in the U.S., engage in fraud to obtain citizenship, or are classified as “alien enemies.”
Under the current passport application process, parents generally only need to establish their relationship to the child and provide photo identification, while citizenship is declared on the application without additional parental citizenship documents.
The proposed changes have already faced legal challenges, with lawyers representing affected children asking federal courts to prevent the administration from enforcing the order.
If implemented, the proposed passport rules would represent a significant change in how applications for U.S.-born children are processed and would further tighten the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
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