Late last month, Republican U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill introduced legislation that would revoke birthright citizenship for children born to illegal aliens.
Gill introduced the “Citizenship Act of 2026” alongside Republican U.S. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana. The legislation seeks to end birthright citizenship for children born to people who entered the United States illegally or entered the country for the purpose of birth tourism.
The legislation states “that any person who enters the United States without authorization or for the purpose of engaging in birth tourism is considered an invader and to amend section 301(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to exclude the children of invaders from birthright citizenship.”
“What it does is two things,” Gill told CBS News. “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 proposal follows a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that left birthright citizenship in place, with Chief Justice John Roberts writing that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
If passed, the bill would codify President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, which supporters argue has been exploited through birth tourism.
In Texas, Republican State Rep. Brian Harrison has urged the state Legislature to combat birth tourism by calling for legislation making it a felony to operate or participate in birth tourism, expanding the criminal offense of illegal entry to include entering the state for that purpose, and granting the Texas attorney general authority to investigate and prosecute birth tourism cases.
Gov. Greg Abbott has also targeted birth tourism by signing an executive order directing multiple state agencies to investigate and eliminate birth tourism operations in Texas.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also launched an investigation into a South Texas hospital that advertised birth tourism services for illegal aliens seeking to obtain U.S. citizenship for their children.
“I think that this is a bill that every Republican should easily be able to get behind,” Gill told CBS News. “I think it’s a bill that 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. Because of that, I think most Americans would say there’s a real problem here that we need to fix.”
Gill said he also hopes to gain Democrat support for the legislation, though he acknowledged he is not optimistic.
“They’ve been pretty against us on almost every single common-sense, immigration related measure we put forward.”
