A new bill in Congress seeks to revoke birthright citizenship for children whose parents entered the US illegally and targets immigrants who travel to the country solely to get citizenship for their children.
Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound, Texas, filed the bill. He says the legislation would not require a constitutional amendment. It would declare anyone who enters the US illegally or for the purpose of what the bill calls “birth tourism” as an “invader.”
The bill comes after the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold birthright citizenship, striking down President Trump’s executive order seeking to end it. The bill filed in the House, along with a bill already filed in the US Senate, would codify the president’s executive order.
What the Bill Does
“What it does is two things,” Gill told CBS News Texas. “So it simply states that illegal aliens and birth tourists are to be classified under federal law as invaders. So it clarifies their status. And secondly, it clarifies that those invaders, illegal aliens and birth tourists are not eligible for birthright citizenship.”
“We believe that this is, I think, sort of the next step after the Supreme Court ruling a few weeks ago. And I think that it’s something that everybody should be able to get behind.”
The Numbers
The Pew Research Center recently found that in 2023, about 320,000 babies were born in the US to mothers who were unauthorized immigrants or had legal temporary status. That is about 9% of the 3.6 million babies born in the US.
Pew said an additional 9,000 women who were residents of foreign countries gave birth in the US that same year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Not all stay in the US. Pew says some in that group, sometimes called “birth tourists,” received temporary visas to secure US citizenship for newborns.
The Opposition
Democratic State Rep. Ramon Romero, Jr. of Fort Worth, who also serves as the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus of Texas, opposes the bill.
“I just think that this is just another example of our elected officials being unwilling to take a loss, and they’re taking their orders directly from the top,” he told CBS News Texas. “President Trump has been completely unhappy with the fact that the Supreme Court, on June 30, issued the decision to say that birthright citizenship is the law of the land. The 14th Amendment continues as the law of the land.”
“The real needs of people are — we have an affordability problem,” Romero said. “And getting rid of those working-class folks, telling them that this is not the place to raise your family, but this is a place where we’ll give you a job, those things just don’t add up.”
Constitutional Challenges
Such a proposal could face constitutional challenges, since the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to anyone born on US soil. The amendment states that all “persons born or naturalized in the U.S. and subject to the jurisdiction thereof” are citizens.
Legal experts have noted that any attempt to revoke birthright citizenship through legislation would likely be struck down by the courts, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed the 14th Amendment’s guarantee.
The Bottom Line
Texas Rep. Brandon Gill has filed a bill seeking to revoke birthright citizenship for children of undocumented parents and target “birth tourism.” The bill would classify undocumented immigrants and birth tourists as “invaders” and declare them ineligible for birthright citizenship. It comes after the Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship in June. The proposal faces likely constitutional challenges under the 14th Amendment. Opponents say the bill is a politically motivated dead end that ignores real issues like affordability.
