President Donald Trump issued an executive order restricting birthright citizenship after the Supreme Court ruled against his original executive order, and Texas Republicans are right behind the president.
The executive order takes a narrower approach than Trump’s original order, targeting birth tourism and seeking to restrict citizenship for certain children born to foreign diplomats, fraudulent applicants and those deemed “alien enemies.” After the Court ruled against Trump, several Republicans in Congress and in local government issued similar measures to combat birth tourism, an issue the party as a whole continues to raise concerns about.
“The president is doing exactly the right thing,” Representative Brian Babin (R-TX) said in an interview last week. “I’m so disappointed in the Supreme Court. We had two Republican appointees vote against what I thought was a very reasonable case.”
The justices ruled 6-3 against the original order because they found the administration had exceeded its authority. Rep. Babin said the interpretation of the 14th Amendment has expanded far beyond its original intent.
“The 14th Amendment was passed after the Civil War to make the children of slaves citizens of the country,” Rep. Babin said. “And that has morphed over the years into that anyone sneaking into the country…that has a baby over here, immediately they become an American citizen.”
Rep. Babin was one of several lawmakers to issue a bill aimed at preventing birth tourism.
Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) has also moved to present a bill that would codify Trump’s executive order, which would declare anyone who enters the U.S. illegally or for what the bill deems birth tourism as an "invader."
“It simply states that illegal aliens and birth tourists are to be classified under federal law as invaders,” Rep. Gill told CBS News. “So it clarifies their status. And secondly, it clarifies that those invaders, illegal aliens and birth tourists, are not eligible for birthright citizenship.”
Rep. Gill said he believes every Republican should support his bill, as it addresses an issue he said “most of the American public would agree with.”
"I think they would agree that if you were coming into the country for the sole purpose of lying on your immigration forms, to come into the country to give birth, so that you can be anchored into the United States,” Rep. Gill said. “Because of that, I think most Americans would say there's a real problem here that we need to fix.”
