Bill proposed by Texas congressman targets "birth tourism," seeks to revoke citizenship if parents enter U.S. illegally

A new bill in Congress seeks to revoke birthright citizenship for the children whose parents entered the U.S. illegally, and takes aim at immigrants who travel to the country solely to get citizenship for their children.

Republican Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound filed the bill. He says the legislation would not require a constitutional amendment.

It would declare anyone who enters the U.S. illegally or for the purpose of what the bill calls birth tourism as an "invader." 

It comes after the U.S. 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 U.S. Senate, would codify the president's executive order. 

But such a proposal could face constitutional challenges, since the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil.

Gill spoke about his legislation with CBS News Texas political reporter Jack Fink before taking the podium at the Red River Roll Call hosted by Rep. Shelley Luther in Sherman. 

"What it does is two things," Gill told Jack. "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 Pew Research Center recently found that in 2023, about 320,000 babies were born in the U.S. to mothers who were unauthorized immigrants or had legal temporary status. That's about 9% of the 3.6 million babies born in the U.S.

Pew said an additional 9,000 women who were residents of foreign countries gave birth in the U.S. that same year, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Not all stay in the U.S. Pew says some in that group, sometimes called "birth tourists," received temporary visas to secure U.S. citizenship for newborns. 

"I think that this is a bill that every Republican should easily be able to get behind," Gill said. "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.

"So I hope that we can get some Democrats on board who can understand the importance of this legislation. Candidly, I don't have a whole lot of hope," Gill added. "They've been pretty against us on almost every single common-sense, immigration related measure we put forward." 

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 Jack. 

"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. And then we see our governor respond. Even prior to this bill, Gov. Abbott responded immediately. Less than a month, he responded to that need, and yet people of Texas are so frustrated by data centers and so on. But yet, this is where his focus is, and Gill is just another one of those elected officials that's not responded to the real needs of people." 

"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. And I think Texans are frustrated by it. They know it. They're tired of getting the wool pulled over their heads. This is a dead end, but they're gonna lose again, in my opinion. I believe that even senators and congressmen throughout our country understand that we're still a nation of immigrants, and I think that'll be proven over time."