Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) introduced a bill to end birthright citizenship in the United States, negating the incentive for illegal immigrants to travel across the border to have babies on U.S. soil.
The "End Birthright Citizenship Fraud Act" would amend the interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment in the Immigration and Nationality Act to what a growing number of conservatives consider to be its "original intent."
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Gaetz's legislation would bar automatic citizenship conferred upon babies born in America to parents who are not U.S. nationals. The bill includes a provision excluding non-citizens who were admitted lawfully as refugees, permanent residents, or working with the military.
“Birthright citizenship has been grossly and blatantly misapplied for decades, recently becoming a loophole for illegal aliens to fraudulently abuse our immigration system," the Florida Republican said in a press release. "My legislation recognizes that American citizenship is a privilege — not an automatic right to be adopted by illegal aliens."
Of primary importance in Gaetz's legislation is the interpretation of the "subject to the jurisdiction thereof" clause in the Fourteenth Amendment, which he says must be returned to the intent of the amendment's drafters.
The legislation goes through a history tying the clause to English common law and laying out a legal case for how the West has understood obtaining citizenship, including in Roman law. The bill goes into the history of the clause in American history through the proposal and adoption of the amendment.
Referencing former Sen. Jacob Howard, a Republican from Michigan during the Reconstruction era and principal spokesman in the Senate for the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, Gaetz's legislation quotes Howard saying of the birthright citizenship clause, "This will not, of course, include persons born in the United States who are foreigners, aliens, who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States, but will include every other class of persons."
Ending birthright citizenship in some form has become a policy position among a growing number of conservatives, including the top three Republican presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
In May, Trump vowed to sign an executive order on his first day in office blocking federal agencies from allowing birthright citizenship as currently interpreted. "My policy will choke off a major incentive for continued illegal immigration, deter more migrants from coming, and encourage many of the aliens Joe Biden has unlawfully let into our country to go back to their home countries," Trump said.
DeSantis announced his plan to end birthright citizenship in June alongside other immigration proposals similar to Trump's, like completing the border wall in order to "repel the invasion" at the Southern border.
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Earlier this month, Ramaswamy called the current interpretation of birthright citizenship, where immigrants are "coming illegally, intentionally to be able to establish an illegal toehold in the United States," an "abandonment of the rule of law."
Gaetz announced the legislation ahead of tomorrow's scheduled hearing to question Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Last Congress, Gaetz joined 31 of his colleagues in cosponsoring articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, introduced by Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).