The Supreme Court’s decision affirming birthright citizenship quickly shifted the fight from the courts to Congress, where Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is urging lawmakers to act.
The ruling upheld the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which grants U.S. citizenship to nearly all people born on American soil, regardless of their parents’ citizenship or immigration status.
“This decision reaffirms one of the fundamental pillars of American life, that all of us born on American soil are citizens alike,” said Cecilia Wang of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Republicans blasted the decision, arguing that the current system has encouraged illegal immigration, birth tourism, and the use of children born in the United States as a shield against deportation. President Donald Trump urged Congress on Truth Social to “start TODAY” on legislation addressing the issue. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin called the ruling “absolutely dead wrong.”
Roy pressed lawmakers to “fix this.”
🚨END BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP🚨
The Supreme Court’s flawed ruling on birthright citizenship is poised to trigger a massive wave of abuse and exploitation.
Congressman Chip Roy says fixing it DOES NOT require a Constitutional Amendment.
Take a listen to @chiproytx's plan! pic.twitter.com/hzc4apR2WW
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 8, 2026
His argument is that Congress does not need to wait for a constitutional amendment. Instead, Roy says lawmakers can define the 14th Amendment phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in federal statute, excluding children born to illegal immigrants or temporary visitors from automatic citizenship. He has also pushed the idea of restricting federal funds for agencies that issue citizenship documents in defiance of that definition.
The fight centers on a clause written by Republicans after the Civil War to secure citizenship for formerly enslaved Americans and others born in the United States. But Republicans now argue that the modern interpretation has been stretched far beyond its purpose. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the policy has been “abused” beyond its original intent.
The issue is not new. In the 1990s, then-Democratic Sen. Harry Reid introduced legislation that would have limited birthright citizenship for children born to parents in the country illegally, arguing that the policy encouraged unlawful immigration.
Roy and other Republicans have pointed to birth tourism and so-called “anchor babies” as evidence that the current system is being exploited. Recent concerns have included organized birth tourism operations, including cases involving wealthy Chinese nationals, though federal data does not show that Chinese nationals make up a majority of birth tourism cases.
Following the ruling, the Justice Department said it would continue prosecuting birth tourism schemes under existing federal law, including cases involving visa fraud, false statements, wire fraud, money laundering, and immigration-related offenses.
For now, the court has settled the constitutional question. Roy’s message is that Congress still has room to move.
